
PR 

MK4 FNGLlSHriASSlCS • 








^HAKESPEARES 



S 



Othello 




Englij^ . Classics, Etc, 

Classes in English Literature; Reading, Grammar, etc. 

EDITED BY EMINENT ENGLISH AND AMERICAN SCHOLARS. 

Each Volume contt "ins a Sketch of the A'uthoi'''s Life, Prefatory and 
i Explanatory Notes, et:-., etc. 

These Volume? ?"|e thoroughly adapted, f cjr Schools in which English 
Literature forms au^anch of study, or wheie a carefully-selected por- 
tion of some Eng' ih Classic is selected for minute examination, or 
for supplementary -eading matter. The notes 9,re unusually full and 
exhaustive, occup fig in many volumes nearljJvhalf the book. Etj^- 
mology is atte^ i ■ to throughout, the derivations of all the more 
difficult Vv .^lue , ^li. i given. In short, they snpply the student with all 
the iurormatio • i jessa.y to a perf e .-1 u: derst ^ ' i and just appre- 
ciation of the ' % and incidentally communicate much useful philo- 
logical and gen i)^' knowledge. 

!N"o, t Byroa'a k'opheey of Dante. (Cantos I. aaJ II.) 

" 8 MUton'f rt Allegro and II Penseroso. ; 

" 8 Lord Ba wi's Essays, CItII and Moral. (Selected.) i^ 

" 4 Byron's \ lisoner of ChiUon. 

" 5 Moore'g i . |e--Worslilpper8. (LaUa Bookh. Selected irom Parts I. 

7 andn.){| 

« 6 Goldsmii 'k Deserted VUlace. 

*• 7 8eott'» i/Vmioa. (SelectioDr^irom Canto VI.) 

" t Scott's ■''iy of the T.ast Minstrel. Tntrodactlon and Ciintol.) 

" 9 Burns' |^:ottcr's Saturday Night, and Otlier Poems. 

" 10 Crabbc|i The Tillage. 

"11 Campbt'il's Pleasures of He i>e. (Abridgment of Part I.) 

*' 13 Maeauljj^g Essay on Banyan's PilgriE" ^ Progress. 

" Ifi Maeau/ay's Armada »nd other Poems. 

" 14 Sha*:e4peare's Merchant of Venice, S elecU ■■ '^qtot: Acts I., I II, 
anrf "V_^ 



15 Goiak f Traveller. f .oV OF CONn^ 

« 16 Ho^ I ien's Wake. h v9)^^ \ P '> ( ''^'^So 

"17 ColT K JAnclent Mariner. f,V^ t„,^ ' i? 

« 18 Ad<7 ^\ lir Roger de Coverley. ''% A f^^ 

« 19 Grj y ^ isr in a Country Churchyard ^<jw "' ^T ^ C' 
« SO Sf ott's Ut of the Lalie. (Canto I.) ^^iNGtlOWj V' 

** Si Sr> 'iakesilre's As You Like It, eie. (Seloctiona.,- ^— i^i— » 

" S3 pfest akes^re's King John and Eing Richard II. (Selections.) 
" SS^ha^^s^re's King Henry IV., King Henry V., King Henry 

/ VI. (^JLoctions.) 
«• ®4 ShakespeaW's Henry Till., and Julius Ceesar. (Selections.; 

(continued.) 



ENGLISH CLASSICS— Continued. 

Xo. S5 Wordewortli's Excursion. (Book I.) 

" 26 Pope's Essay on Critieism. 

" 27 Spenser's Faerie Queene. (Cantos I. and 11.) 

" S8 Oowper's Task. (Book I.) 

" 29 MUton's Oomus. \ 

" 80 Tennyson's Enoch Arden, The Lotus Eaters, UlysBeg^ ond 

Tithonus. 

" 81 Irving's Sketch Book. (Selections.) 

** 82 Dickens* Christmas CaroL (Condensed.) 

" 8S Carlyle's Hero as a Prophet. 

" 84 Macaulay's "Warren Hastings. (Cotidensed.) 

" 85 Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield. (Condensed.) 

*« 86 Tennyson's The Two Voices, and A Dream of Fair Women. 

'* 8? Memory Quotations. 

" 88 Cavalier Poets. 

" 89 Dry den's Alexander's Feast, ana jUaciTlecKnoe. 

*♦ 40 Keats' The Eve of St. Agnes. \ 

** 41 Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 

'* 42 Lamh's Tales from Shakespeare. 

" 48 Le Kow's How to Teach Reading. 

*' 44 Webster's Bunker Hill Orations. 

♦' 45 The Academy Orthoepist. A Manual of Pronunciation. 

*' 46 Milton's Lycidas, and Hymn on the Nativity. 

** 47 Bryant's Thanntopsis, and Other Poems. , 

" 48 Raskin's Modern Painters. (Selections.) f 

** 49 The Shakespeare Speaker. 

" 50 Thackeray's Roundabout Papers. | 

*' 51 Webster's Oration on Adams and JefTerson. 

" 52 Brown's Rah and His Friends. 

*' 58 Morris's Life and Death of Jason. 

*'* 54 Burke's Speech on American Taxation. 

** 55 Pope's Rape of the Lock. 

«« 56 Tennyson's Elaine. ! 

" 5'? Tennyson's In Memorlain. i 

" 68 Church's Story of tbe JEneid. 

" 59 Church's Story of the Iliad. ' 

" 60 Swift's Gulliver's Voyage to Lilllpnt. 

" 61 Macaulay's Essay on Lord Bacon. (Condensed.) 

«* 62 The Alcestls of Euripides. English Version by Rev. R.Potter, M. A, 

" 68 The Antigone of Sophocles. English Version by Thomas Franck- 

lin, D.D. 

«* 64 Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (Selected Poems.) 

" 65 Robert Browning. (Selected Poems.) 

"66 Addison's' The Spectator. (Selections.) 

" 6? Scenes from George Eliot's Adam Bede. 
♦* 68^ Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy. 

Continued on last J>age, 



^ 



SHAKESPEARE'S 

w 

OTHELLO 

WITH 

Introduction, Notes, and Plan of Preparation. 



(selected.) 



^ 



vV 




By BRAINERD KELLOGG, LL.D., ' -- - 

Professor of the English Language and Literature in the Brooklyn 

Polytechnic Institute, author of a " Text-Book on Rhetoric," a 

" Text-Book on English Literature," and one of the authors 

of Reed &> Kcllogg's ^^ Graded Lessons in English," 

and ^^ Higher Lessons in English." 

etc., etc. 

New York : 
Effingham Maynard & "Co., Publishers, 

771 Broadway and 6j & 69 Ninth St. ■ . ^ "? "? \ 



1892. 



~f 



KELLOGG'S EDITIONS, ' , 

Shakespeare's Plays, "^ ^t^ 

WITH NOTES. 
Unifortn in style and price with this volume, 

THUS FAR COMPRISE: 
MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
KING HENRY V. 
AS YOU LIKE IT. 
JULIUS CJESAR. 
KING LEAR. 
MACBETH. 
TEMPEST. 
HAMLET. 

KING HENRY VIII. 
KING HENRY IV., Part I. 
KING RICHARD III. 
A MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM- 
A WINTER'S TALE. 
OTHELLO. 
TWELFTH NIGHT. 

OTHERS IN PREPARATION. 



Copyright, 1891, by 
EFFINGHAM MAYNARD & CO, 



b^' . EDITOR'S NOTE. 

^\ - 

The text here presented, adapted for use in mixed 
classes, has been carefully collated with that of six or 
seven of the latest and best editions. Where there was 
any disagreement those readings have been adopted 
which seemed most reasonable and were supported hy 
the best authority. 

The notes of English editors have been freely used. 
Those taken as the basis of our work have been rigor- 
ously pruned wherever they were thought too learned 
or too minute, or contained matter that for any other 
reason seemed unsuited to our purpose. We have 
generously added to them, also, wherever they seemed 
to be lacking. B. K. 




\ l//^.^li^.^. 



GENERAL NOTICE. 



** An attempt has been made in these new editions to 
interpret Shakespeare by the aid of Shakespeare himself. 
The Method of Comparison has been constantly employ- 
ed ; and the language used by him in one place has been 
compared with the language used in other places in simi- 
lar circumstances, as well as with older English and with 
newer English, The text has been as carefully and as 
thoroughly annotated as the text of any Greek or Latia 
classic. 

" The first purpose in this elaborate annotation is, of 
course the full working out of Shakespeare's meaning. 
The Editor has in all circumstances taken as much pains. 
with this as if he had been making out the difficult and 
obscure terms of a will in which he himself was personally 
interested ; and he submits that this thorough excavation 
of the meaning of a really profound thinker is one of the 
very best kinds of training that a boy or girl can receive at 
school. This is to read the very mind of Shakespeare, and 
to weave his thoughts into the fibre of one's own mental 
constitution. And always new rewards come to the care- 
ful reader— in the shape of new meanings, recognition of 
5 



thoughts he had before missed, of relations between the 
characters that had hitherto escaped him. For reading 
Shakespeare is just like examining Nature ; there are no 
hoUownesses, there is no scamped work, for Shakespeare 
is as patiently exact and as first-hand as Nature herself, 

" Besides this thorough working-out of Shakespeare's 
meaning, advantage has been taken of the opportunity to 
teach his English — to make each play an introduction to 
the English of Shakespeare. For this purpose copi- 
ous collections of similar phrases have been gathered from 
other plays ; his idioms have been dwelt upon ; his pecu- 
liar use of words ; his style and his rhythm. Some 
Teachers may consider that too many instances are given ; 
but, in teaching, as in everything else, the old French say- 
ing is true : Assez n^y a, sHl trop n''y a. The Teacher 
need not require each pupil to give him all the instances 
collected. If each gives one or two, it will probably be 
enough ; and, among them all, it is certain that one or two 
"will stick in the memory. It is probable that, for those pu- 
pils who do not study either Greek or Latin, this close ex- 
amination of every word and phrase in the text of Shake- 
speare will be the best substitute that can be found for the 
study of the ancient classics. 

" It were much to be hoped that Shakespeare should 
become more and more of a study, and that every boy 
and girl should have a thorough knowledge of at least one 
play of Shakespeare before leaving school. "It would be 
one of the best lessons in human life, without the chanca 
of a polluting or degrading experience. It would alsa 
liave the effect of bringing back into the too pale and for-, 
jnal English of modern times a large number of pithy an<J 



vigorous phrases which would help to develop as well as 
to reflect vigor in the characters of the readers. Shake- 
speare used the English language with more power than 
any other writer that ever lived — he made it do more and 
say more than it had ever done ; he made it speak in a 
more original way ; and his combinations of words are per- 
petual provocations and invitations to originality and to 
newness of insight." — ^J. M. D, Meiklejohn, M.A., 
Professor of the Theory^ History, and Practice of Edttca* 
tion in the University of St. Andrews, 



Shakespeare's Grammar. 

Shakespeare lived at a time when the grammar and vocabulary of 
the English language were in a state of transition. Various pomts 
were not yet settled ; and so Shakespeare's grammar is not only 
somewhat different from our own but is by no means uniform in 
itself. In the Elizabethan age, "Almost any part of speech can be 
used as any other part of speech. An adverb can be used as a verb, 
'They askance their eyes;' as a noun, 'the backward and abysm 
of time ;' or as an adjective, 'a seldom pleasure.' Any noun, ad- 
jective, or neuter [intrans.] verb can be used as an active [trans.] 
verb. You can 'happy' your friend, 'malice' or 'foot 'your en- 
emy, or ' fall ' an axe on his neck. An adjective can be used as 
an adverb ; and you can speak and act ' easy,' ' free,' ' excel- 
lent ; ' or as a noun, and you can talk of 'fair' instead of 'beau- 
ty,' and ' a pale ' instead of ' a paleness.' Even the pronouns are 
not exempt from these metamorphoses. A ' he ' is used for a man, 
and a lady is described by a gentleman as ' the fairest she he has yet 
beheld.' In the second place, every variety of apparent grammati- 
cal inaccuracy meets us. Re for Am, him for he ; spoke and took for 
spoken and taken ; plural nominatives with singular verbs ; relatives 
omitted where they are now considered necessary ; unnecessary an- 
tecedents inserted ; shall for will, should for would^ would for wish ; 
10 omitted after ' I ought,' inserted after ' / durst ; ' double nega- 
tives • double comparatives (' more better,' &c.) and superlatives ; 
such followed ^ij which [or that'll that by as, as used for as if ; that 
for so that ; and lastly some verbs apparently with two nominatives, 
and others without any nominative at all."— Dr. Abbott's Shakespe- 
rian Grammar. 

Shakespeare's Versification. 

Shakespeare's Plays are written mainly in what is knovro as UU' 
rimed, or blank-verse ; but they contain a number of riming, and a 
considerable number of prose, lines. As a general rule, rime is 
much commoner in the earlier than in the later plays. Thus, Love''s 
Labors Lost contains nearly 1,100 rimins lines, whUe (if we except 
the songs) Winter's Tale has none. The Merchant of Venice has 
124. 

In speaking we lay a stress on particular syllables : this stress is 
called accent. When the words of a composition are so arranged 
that the accent recurs at regular intervals, the composition is said to 
be metrical or rhythmical. Khythm, or Metre, is an embellishment 
of language which, though it does not constitute poetry itself, yet 
provides it with a suitably elegant dress ; and hence most moderu 
poets have written in metre. In blank ve'-se the lines consist usu- 



OHy of ten syllables, of which the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and 
tenth are accented. The line consists, therefore, of live parts, each 
/)f which contains an unaccented followed by an accented syllable, 
as in the word attend. Each of these five parts forms what is called 
'Afoot or measure ; and the five together form a pentameter. " Penta- 
meter " is a Greek word signifying " five measures." This is the 
usual form of a line of blank verse. But a long poem composed en- 
tirely of such lines would be monotonous, and for the sake of variety- 
several important modifications have been introduced. 

(o) After the tenth syllable, one or two unaccented syllables ar^ 
sometimes added ; as— 

" Me-tJwught | you said \ you net \ ther lend \ nor bor\ row.'''' 

(6) In any foot the accent may be shifted from the second to the 
first syllable, provided two accented syllables do not come together. 

" Pluck' the 1 young suck' \ ing cubs' | from the' \ she hear'. \ " 

(c) In such words as "yesterday," "voluntary," "honesty," the 
syllables -day, -ta-, and ty falling in the place of the accent, are^ 
for the purposes of the verse, regarded as truly accented. 

^'- Bars' me I the right' \ of vol'- \ un-ta' 1 ry choos' \ ing.'''' 

{d) Sometimes we have a succession of accented syllables ; this 
occurs with monosyllabic feet only. 

" Why, noiv, Now wind, swell billow, and swim bark.'''' 

ifi) Sometimes, but more rarely, two or even three unaccented 
syllables occupy the place of one ; as— 

" He says \ he does, | be-ing then \ most flat \ ter-ed.^' 

(f) Lines may have any number of feet from one to six. 

Finally, Shakespeare adds much to the pleasing variety of hi^ 
blank verse by placing the pauses in different parts of the line 
(especially after the second or third foot), instead of placing them 
all at the ends of lines, as was the earlier custom. 

N. B.— In some cases the rhythm requires that what we usually 
pronounce as one syllable shall be divided into two, asfl-er (fire), 
su-er (sure), mi-el /mile), &c. ; too-elve (twelve), jaw-ee (joy), &c. 
Similarly, she-on (-tion or -sion). 

It is very important to give the pupil plenty of ear-training by 
means of formal scansion. This will greatly assist him inhis 
reading. 



PLAN OF STUDY 



* PERFECT POSSESSION/ 



To attain to the standard of ^ Perfect Pos- 
session,' the reader ought to have an inti- 
mate and ready knowledge of the subject. 
(See opposite page.) 

The student ought, first of all, to read the 
play as a pleasure ; then to read it over again, 
with his mind upon the characters and the 
plot ; and lastly, to read it for the meanings, 
grammar, &c. 

With the help of the scheme, he can easily 
draw up for himself short examination papers 
(i) on each scene, (2) on each act, (3) on 
the whole play, 

8 



1. The Plot and Story of the Play. 

(a) The general plot ; 
(d) The special incidents. 

2. The Characters: Ability to give a connected account 

of all that is done and most of what is said by 
each character in the play. 

3. The Influence and Interplay of the Characters upon 

each other. 

(a) Relation of A to B and of B to A ; 
(5) Relation of A to C and D. 

4. Complete Possession of the Language. 

(a) Meanings of words ; 

{&) Use of old words, or of words in an old mean- 
ing; 

(c) Grammar; 

(d) Ability to quote lines to illustrate a gram- 

matical point. 

5. Power to Reproduce, or Quote. 

(a) What was said by A or B on a particular 

occasion ; 
(d) What was said by A in reply to B ; 

(c) What argument was used by C at a particu- 

lar juncture ; 

(d) To quote a line in instance of an idiom or of 

a peculiar meaning. 
Ik Power to Locate. 

(a) To attribute a line or statement to a certain 

person on a certain occasion ; 
(S) To cap a line ; 
(c) To fill in the right word or epithet. 



INTRODUCTION TO -OTHELLO. 



In " Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at 
Court," one of the Shakespeare Society's reprints, we 
find the earliest known record of the performance of 
"Othello." "The King's Players," it is there said, 
" performed the play of the Moor of Venice at the 
Banqueting-house at Whitehall, on the ist of Novem- 
ber (Hallowmas Day), 1604." We have other records 
of its performance in the author's life-time, informing 
us of its having been represented at the Globe Theatre 
on the last day in April, 1610, and at the Court early in 
the year, 161 3. We may well suppose that it was very 
popular ; yet it appears to have remained unpublished 
till the year 1622, when it was issued in the usual 
small quarto form, with the following title: "The 
Tragoedy of Othello, The Moore of Venice, As it 
hath beene diverse times acted at the Globe, and at the 
Black Friers, by his Majesties Servants. Written by 
William Shakespeare, London, Printed by N. O. for 
Thomas Walkley, and are to be sold at his shop at 

10 



IN TROD UC riON. 1 1 

the Eagle and Child, in Brittans Bursse, 1622." This 
was only one year in ant'cipation of Heminge and 
Condell's folio publication of the first collection of 
Shakespeare's plays. Another quarto edition of 
Othello appeared in 1630. 

Reed says, "The time of this play may be ascer- 
tained from the following circumstances. Selymus 
the Second formed his design against Cyprus in 1569, 
and took it in 1571. This was the only attempt the 
Turks ever made upon that island after it came into 
the hands of the Venetians (which was in the year 
1473) ; wherefore the time must fall in with some part 
of that interval. We learn from the play that there 
was a junction of the Turkish fleet at Rhodes, in order 
for the invasion of Cyprus ; that it first came sailing 
towards Cyprus, then went to Rhodes, there met 
another squadron, and then resumed its way to 
Cyprus. These are real historical facts, which hap- 
pened when Mustapha Selymus's general attacked 
Cyprus in May, 1570, which therefore is the true 
period of this performance." 

" Othello" was probably composed in 1603 or 1604, 
when its author was about forty years of age, and his 
genius had attained, and begun to exercise continu- 
ously, its full vigor. The story on which it is 
founded is one of the Hecatommithi^ or " Hundred 
Tales." of Giraldi Cinthio, being the seventh novel of 
the third decade. No ancient English translation has 



12 INTR OD UCTION. 

come down to us, though in all probability it was 
some English version of the story of the Moor of 
Venice that suggested the tragedy. There are two 
modern English translations of that story : one by 
Wolstenholme Parr, 1795, the other by John Edward 
Taylor, 1855. We here give a brief summary of the 
earlier portion of the story, with the addition of a 
few abridged quotations from the latter part of Tay- 
lor's translation : — 

There once lived in Venice a valiant and handsome 
Moor, highly esteemed by the Signiory of the Re- 
public for his military talents. A virtuous and beau- 
tiful lady, named Disdemona, admiring his valor, fell 
in love with him, and won his affection ; and, in spite 
of the opposition of her parents, they were married. 
They lived together in great harmony for some time. 
The Signiory of Venice, however, happening to make 
a change in the troops that garrisoned Cyprus, ap- 
pointed the Moor commander of the soldiers ordered 
to that island. Disdemona was eager to accompany 
him in the expedition ; but he was as reluctant to 
let her thus encounter toil and danger as to leave 
her behind. She said that she apprehended no dan- 
ger ; but, if there were any toils and perils, she would 
share them with him. The Moor kissed her, and 
said, " God keep you long in such love, dear wife !" 
Then speedily preparing for his voyage, he took her 
with him on board his galley with the troops. The 



IN TR OD UC TION. 1 3 

sea was calm, the voyage very pleasant, and they 
arrived safely at Cyprus. 

Now, there was one of the soldiers, an ensign, irs 
great favor with the Moor. He was a very hand- 
some man, but of a very depraved nature. The 
villany of his mind was, however, cloaked with a 
plausible manner. His artful speech made him ap 
pear honorable and heroic. He, too, had taken his 
wife to Cyprus, a young Italian lady, fair and virtuous, 
and much beloved by Disdemona, who spent much. 
time with her. 

There was another of the soldiers, a captain of a 
troop, and he being also in great favor with the Moor, 
Disdemona, with her husband's approval, showed him 
great kindness. 

Now, the wicked ensign fell violently in love witk 
Disdemona, and sought in various ways to make 
known to her his passion. But all his attempts to 
gain her love proving vain, he took it into his head 
that his ill-success was owing to Disdemona's love 
for the captain ; and he therefore began both to hate 
the lady and also to seek means of removing the 
captain from her sight ; and at length he became bent 
on compassing the death of the captain and alienat- 
ing the Moor's affection from Disdemona. He re- 
solved to contrive occasion for making the Moor 
suppose that Disdemona was unfaithful and that the 
captain was her paramour. 



14 IN TROD UC TION. 

Shortly afterwards, it happened that the captain 
drew his sword upon a soldier of the guard, and 
struck him, and was for this offense deprived of his 
captaincy by the Moor. Disdemona, deeply grieved 
at this, tried all she could to reconcile her husband to 
the dismissed soldier. The Moor made known her 
importunity to the ensign, and this circumstance the 
ensign immediately took advantage of, and therewith 
began to work his web of treachery. He said to the 
Moor that possibly Disdemona had good cause to look 
kindly on the man ; but, when the Moor asked him 
"what he meant, the ensign said he would n^t interfere 
between man and wife, but let the Moor judge with 
his own eyes. 

The Moor vainly tried by further questioning to 
obtain disclosures. The ensign would say no more ; 
but what he had said was a thorn in the heart of the 
Moor, who could think of nothing else, and was per- 
plexed and melancholy. One day when his wife 
was interceding with him for the captain, and begging 
him not to forget former services for one small fault, 
the Moor became angry, and asked her how she 
came to take such interest in this man, Disdemona 
meekly besought him not to be angry, as no other 
reason made her speak than regret that her lord 
should lose so good an officer and so dear a friend ; 
nor did she think his offense so great as to deserve 
dismissal. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

The Moor, observing the earnestness with which 
his wife again pleaded for the captain, began to guess 
the meaning of the ensign's words ; and in deep mel- 
ancholy he went to seek that villain, and induce him 
to speak more openly of what he knew. Then the en- 
sign, who was bent upon injuring the unhappy lady, 
after feigning at first great reluctance to say aught 
that might displease the Moor, at length pretended to 
yield to his entreaties, and said, "I can't deny it 
pains me to the soul to be thus forced to say what 
needs must be more hard to bear than any other 
grief ; but since you will it so, and that the regard I 
owe your honor compels me to confess the truth, I 
will no longer refuse to satisfy your questions and my 
duty. Know, then, that for no other reason is your 
lady vexed to see the captain in disfavor than for the 
pleasure that she has in his company whenever he 
comes to your house, and all the more since she has 
taken an aversion to your blackness." 

These words went straight to the Moor's heart ; 
but, in order to hear more, he replied, with a fierce 
glance, "By heavens, I scarce can hold this hand 
from plucking out that tongue of thine, so bold, 
which dares to speak such slander of my wife !" 

" Captain," replied the ensign, " I looked for such 
reward for these my faithful offices, — none else , but, 
since my duty and the jealous care I bear your honor 
have carried me thus far, I do repeat, so stands the 



i6 INTRODUCTION. 

truth as you have heard it from these lips : and if 
the lady Disdemona hath, with a false show of love 
for you, blinded your eyes to what you should have 
seen, this is no argument but that I speak the truth.'* 

Then the Moor, burning with indignation and an- 
guish, said, " Make thou these eyes self-witnesses of 
what thou tellest, or on thy life I'll make thee wish 
thou hadst been born without a tongue." 

" An easy task it would have been," replied the 
villain, "when he was used to visit at your house; but 
now that you have banished him, not for just cause, 
but for a frivolous pretext, it will be hard to prove the 
truth. Still I do not forego the hope to make you 
witness of that which you will not credit from my lips. " 
Thus they parted. 

Disdemona often used to go, as I have already said, 
to visit the ensign's wife, and remained with her a good 
part of the day. Now the ensign observed that she 
carried about with her a handkerchief which he knew 
tfe Moor had given her, finely embroidered in the 
^Moorish fashion, and which was precious to Disde- 
mona nor less so to the Moor. Then he conceived 
the plan of taking this kerchief from her secretly, and 
thus laying the snare for her final ruin. The ensign 
had a little daughter, a child three years of age, who 
was much loved by Disdemona; and, one day when 
ihe unhappy lady had gone to pay a visit at the house 
of this vile man, he took the little child up in his 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

arms, and carried her to Disdemona, who took her, and 
pressed her to her bosom; whilst at the same instant 
this traitor drew the kerchief from her sash so cun- 
ningly that she did not notice him, and, overjoyed, 
he took his leave of her. 

Disdemona returned home, and, busied with other 
thoughts, forgot the handkerchief. But a few days 
afterwards, looking for it and not finding it, she was 
in alarm lest the Moor should ask her for it, as he off 
was wont to do. Meanwhile the wicked ensign, seiz- 
ing a fit opportunity, went to the captain of the troop, 
and with crafty malice left the handkerchief at the 
head of his bed, and the following morning, on his 
getting out of bed, the handkerchief fell upon the floor. 
Not being able to imagine how it had come into his 
house, knowing that it belonged to Disdemona, he re- 
solved to give it her ; and, waiting until the Moor 
had gone from home, he went to the back door, and 
knocked. Just at that time the Moor returned home, 
and, hearing a knocking at the back door, he went to 
the window, and in a rage exclaimed, "Who knocks 
there ? " The captain, hearing the Moor's voice, and 
fearing less he should come downstairs and attack him-, 
took to flight without answering a word. The Moor 
went down, and opening the door, hastened into the 
street, and looked about, but in vain. Then returning 
into the house, in great anger, he demanded of his 
wife who it was that had knocked at the door. Disde- 



1 8 IN TROD UCTION. 

TTiona replied that she did not know: but the Moor said, 
" It seemed to me the captain," 

" I know not," answered Disdemona. 

The Moor restrained his fury, wishing to do nothing 
"before consulting the ensign, to whom he hastened 
instantly, and told him all that had passed, praying 
him to gather from the captain all he could respecting 
the affair. The ensign, overjoyed at the occurrence, 
promised the Moor to do as he requested; and one 
day he took occasion to speak with the captain, and the 
Moor was so placed that he could see and hear them 
as they conversed. And whilst talking to him of every 
other subject than of Disdemona, he kept laughing all 
the time aloud; and, feigning astonishment, he made 
various movements with his head and hands, as if 
listening to some tale of marvel. As soon as the Moor 
■saw the captain depart, he went up to the ensign, to 
Tiear what he had said to him. And the ensign, after 
long entreaty, at length said, " He has hidden from 
me nothing, and has told me that he has been used to 
visit your wife whenever you went from home, and 
that, on the last occasion, she gave him the handker- 
chief which you presented to her when you married 
her." 

The Moor thanked the ensign; and it seemed now 
clear to him that, should he find Disdemona not to 
have the handkerchief, it was all true that the ensign 
had told him. One day, therefore, after dinner, in 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

conversation with his wife on various subjects, he 
asked her io\ the kerchief. The unhappy lady, who 
had been in great fear of this, grew red as fire at this 
demand; and, to hide the scarlet of her cheeks, which 
was closely noted by the Moor, she ran to a chest, and 
pretended to seek the handkerchief: and, after hunt- 
ing for it a long time, she said, " I know not how it is 
— I cannot find it — can you perchance have taken it ? " 

" If I had taken it," said the Moor, "why should 
I ask it of you ? but you will look better another 
time." 

On leaving the room, the Moor fell to meditating 
how he should put his wife to death, and likewise the 
captain of the troop, so that their death should not be 
laid to his charge. And as he ruminated over this 
night and day, he could not prevent his wife's observ- 
ing that he was not the same toward her as he had been 
wont ; and she said to him, again and again, "What is 
the matter ? what troubles you ? how comes it that 
you, who were the most light-hearted man in the world, 
are now so melancholy ? " 

The Moor feigned various reasons in reply to his 
wife's questioning, but she was not satisfied; and, al- 
though conscious that she had given the Moor no 
cause, by act or deed, to be so troubled, yet she feared 
that he might have grown weary of her ; and she would 
say to the ensign's wife, " I know not what to say of 
the Moor ; he used to be all love toward me ; but 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

within these few days he has become another man. 
But as I know the Moor is on such terms of friendship 
with your husband, and communicates to him all his 
affairs, I pray you, if you have heard from him aught 
that you may tell me of, fail not to befriend me." 
And as she said this she wept bitterly. 

The ensign's wife, who knew the whole truth (her 
husband wishing to make use of her to compass the 
death of Disdemona) but could never consent to such 
a project, dared not, from fear of her husband, disclose 
a single circumstance: all she said was, " Beware lest 
you give any cause of suspicion to your husband, and 
show to him by every means your fidelity and love." 

"Indeed, I do so," replied Disdemona; "but it is 
all of no avail." 

Meanwhile, the Moor sought in every way to con- 
vince himself of what he fain would have found untrue; 
and he prayed the ensign to contrive that he might see 
the handkerchief in the possession of the captain. 

Now the captain had a wife at home, who worked 
ihe most marvellous embroidery upon lawn ; and, see- 
ing the handkerchief which belonged to the Moor's 
wife, she resolved, before it was returned to her, to 
work one like it. As she was engaged in this task, the 
ensign observed her standing at the window, where she 
could be seen by all passers-by in the street ; and he 
pointed her out to the Moor, who was now perfectly 
convinced of his wife's guilt. Th,en he arranged with 



INTRODUCTION. 2i 

the ensign to slay Disdemona and the captain of the 
troop. And the Moor prayed the ensign that he 
would kill the captain, promising eternal gratitude to 
him. 

The ensign going out one dark night, sword in hand, 
met the captain, on his way to visit a courtesan, and 
struck him a blow on his right thigh, which cut off 
his leg and felled him to the earth. Then the ensign 
was on the point of putting an end to his life, when 
the captain, who was a courageous man, drew his 
sword, and, wounded as he was, kept on his defense, 
exclaiming with a loud voice, "I'm murdered!" 
Thereupon the ensign, hearing the people come run- 
ning up, with some of the soldiers who were lodged 
thereabouts, took to his heels, to escape being caught; 
then turning about again, he joined the crowd, pretend- 
ing to have been attracted by the noise. And when 
he saw the captain's leg cut off, he judged that, if not 
already dead, the blow must at all events end his 
life ; and, whilst in his heart he rejoiced at this, he yet 
feigned to compassionate the captain as if he had been 
his brother. 

The next morning the tidings of this affair spread 
through the whole city and reached the ears of Dis- 
demona; whereat she, who was kind-hearted, and little 
dreamed that any ill would betide her, evinced the 
greatest grief at the calamity. This served but to con- 
firm the Moor's suspicions, and he went to seek for 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

the ensign, and said to him, " Do you know that ass 
my wife is in such grief at the captain's accident that 
she is well-nigh gone mad ?" 

" And what could you expect, seeing he is her very 
soul?" replied the ensign. 

**Ay, soul forsooth;" exclaimed the Moor; "I'll 
draw the soul from out her body: call me no man, if 
that I fail to shut the world upon this wretch." 

Then they consulted of one means and another — 
poison and daggers — to kill poor Disdemona, but 
could resolve on nothing. At length the ensign said, 
" A plan comes to my mind, which will give you 
satisfaction, and raise cause for no suspicion, — it is 
this: the house in which you live is very old, and the 
ceiling of your chamber has many cracks; I propose 
we take a stocking, filled with sand, and beat Disde- 
mona with it till she dies: thus will her body bear no 
signs of violence. When she is dead, we can pull 
down a portion of the ceiling, and thus make it seem 
as if a rafter, falling on her head, had killed the 
lady." 

This ciuel counsel pleased the Moor, and he only 
waited for a fitting time to execute the plot. One 
night when he and Disdemona had retired to bed, the 
ensign, whom the Moor had concealed in a closet 
which opened into the chamber, raised a noise in the 
closet, according to a concerted plan ; whereat the 
Moor said to his wife, ' ' Did you not hear that noise 1 " 



IN TR OD UC TIOJV. 23 

'* Indeed, I heard it," she replied. 

" Rise," said the Moor, " and see what it is." 

The unhappy Disdemona rose from bed, and 
the instant she approached the closet, out rushed the 
ensign, and being strong and of stout nerve, he beat 
her cruelly with the bag of sand across her back ; upon 
which Disdemona fell to the ground, scarce able to 
draw her breath: but, with the little voice she had left, 
she called upon the Moor for aid. But the Moor, 
leaping from bed, exclaimed, " Thou wickedest of 
women, thus has thy falseness found its just reward, — 
the recompense to wives who, counterfeiting love, 
place horns upon their husbands' brows." 

The wretched lady hearing these words, and feeling 
that she was near her end (for the ensign had given her 
another blow), appealed to the justice of Heaven, 
since justice here had failed her, in proof of her fidel- 
ity and truth ; and, as she was thus calling Heaven to 
witness, the wicked ensign inflicted a third blow, under 
which she sank lifeless on the floor. 

Then the ensign and the Moor, laying Disdemona 
on the bed, and wounding her head, pulled down part 
of the ceiling of the chamber, as they had arranged; 
whereupon the Moor began to call loud for help, ex- 
claiming that the house was falling. Hearing this 
uproar, the neighbors all came running up, and there 
found Disdemona lying dead beneath a rafter — a sight 
which, from the good life of that poor lady, did fill all- 
hearts with sorrow. 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

REMARKS OF AUTHORS ON "OTHELLO." 

" The beauties of this play impress themselves so 
strongly upon the attention of the reader that they 
■can draw no aid from critical illustration. The fiery 
openness of Othello, magnanimous, artless, and cred- 
ulous, boundless in his confidence, ardent in his affec- 
tion, inflexible in his resolution, and obdurate in his re- 
venge; the cool malignity of lago, silent in his resent- 
ment, subtle in his designs, and studious at once of his 
interest and his vengeance; the soft simplicity of Des- 
demona, confident of merit, and conscious of innocence, 
her artless perseverance in her suit, and her slowness 
to suspect that she can be suspected, are such proofs 
of Shakespeare's skill in human nature as, I suppose, 
it is vain to seek in any modern writer. The gradual 
progress which lago makes in the Moor's con^jiction, 
and the circumstances which he employs to inflame 
him, are so artfully natural that, though it will per- 
haps not be said of him as says himself, that he is a 
man not easily jealous, yet we cannot but pity him when 
at last we find him perplexed in the extreme. 

" There is always danger lest wickedness, conjoined 
with abilities, should steal upon esteem, though it 
misses of approbation ; but the character of lago is so 
conducted that he is, from the first scene to the last, 
hated and despised. Even the inferior characters of 
this play would be very conspicuous in any other 



IN TRODUC TION. 2 5 

piece, not only for their justness, but their strength. 
Cassio is brave, beaevolent, and honest, ruined only 
by his want of stubbornness to resist an insidious invi- 
tation. Roderigo's suspicious credulity, and impatient 
submission to the cheats which he sees practised upon 
him, and which by persuasion he suffers to be repeated, 
exhibit a strong picture of a weak mind betrayed by 
unlawful desires to a false friend ; and the virtue of 
Emilia is such as we often find worn loosely, but not 
cast off, easy to commit small crimes, but quickened 
and alarmed at atrocious villanies. 

"The scenes from the beginning to the end are 
busy; varied by happy interchanges, and regularly 
promoting the progress of the story; and the nar- 
rative in the end, though it tells but what is known al- 
ready, yet is necessary to produce the death of Othello. 

" Had the scene opened in Cyprus, and the preced- 
ing incidents been occasionally related, there had been 
little wanting to a drama of the most exact and scrupu- 
lous regularity." — Johnson. 

" A more artful villain than this lago was never por- 
trayed; he spreads his nets with a skill which nothing 
can escape. The repugnance inspired by his aims be- 
comes tolerable from the attention of the spectators 
being directed to his means: these furnish endless em- 
ployment to the understanding. Cool, discontented, 
and morose, arrogant where he dares be so, but hum- 
ble and insinuating when it suits his purposes, he is a 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

complete master in the art of dissimulation; accessible 
only to selfish emotions, he is thoroughly skilled in 
rousing the passions of others, and in availing himself 
of every opening v^rhich they give him: he is as excel- 
lent an observer of men as any one can be who is un- 
acquainted with higher motives of action from his ov/n 
experience; there is always some truth in his malicious 
observations on them. He does not merely pretend 
an obdurate incredulity as to the virtue of women, he 
actually entertains it; and this, too, falls in with his 
whole way of thinking, and makes him the more fit 
for the execution of his purpose. As in everything he 
sees merely the hateful side, he dissolves in the rudest 
manner the charm which the imagination casts over 
the relation between the two sexes: he does so for the 
purpose of revolting Othello's senses, whose heart 
otherwise might easily have convinced him of Desde- 
mona's innocence. This must serve as an excuse 
for the numerous expressions in the speeches of lago 
from which modesty shrinks. If Shakespeare had 
written in our days, he would not perhaps have dared 
to hazard them; and yet this must certainly have 
greatly injured the truth of his picture. Desdemona 
is a sacrifice without blemish. She is not, it is true, a 
high ideal representation of sweetness and enthusiastic 
passion like Juliet; full of simplicity, softness, and 
humility, and so innocent that she can hardly form to 
herself an idea of the possibility of infidelity, she 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

seems calculated to make the most yielding and ten- 
derest of wives. The female propensity wholly to re- 
sign itself to a foreign destiny has led her into the 
only fault in her life, that of marrying without her 
father's consent. Her choice seems wrong; and yet 
she has been gained over to Othello by that which in- 
duces the female to honor in man her protector and 
guide, — admiration of his determined heroism, and 
compassion for the sufferings which he had under- 
gone. With great art it is so contrived that, from the 
very circumstance that the possibility of a suspicion of 
her own purity of motive never once enters her mind, 
she is less reserved in her solicitations for Cassio, and 
thereby does but heighten more and more the jealousy 
of Othello. To throw out still more clearly the an- 
gelic purity of Desdemona, Shakespeare has in Emilia 
associated with her a companion of doubtful virtue. 
From the sinful levity of this woman, it is also con- 
ceivable that she should not confess the abstraction of 
the handkerchief when Othello violently demands it 
back: this would otherwise be the circumstance in the 
whole piece the most difficult to justify. Cassio is 
portrayed exactly as he ought to be to excite suspicion 
without actual guilt,— amiable and nobly disposed, but 
easily seduced. The public events of the first two 
acts show us Othello in his most glorious aspect, as 
the support of Venice and the terror of the Turks; 
they serve to withdraw the story from the mere do- 



28 INTROD UCTION. 

mestic circle, just as this is done in * Romeo and Juliet ' 
by the dissensions between the houses of Montague 
and Capulet. No eloquence is capable of painting the 
overwhelming force of the catastrophe in 'Othello,' 
— the pressure of feelings which measure out in a mo- 
ment the abysses of eternity." — Schlegel. 

" Admirable is the preparation, so truly and pecu- 
liarly Shakespearean, in the introduction of Roderigo, 
as the dupe on whom lago shall first exercise his art, 
and in doing so display his own character. Roderigo, 
without any fixed principle, but not without the moral 
notions and sympathies with honor which his rank and 
connections had hung upon him, is already well fitted 
and predisposed for the purpose; for very want of 
character and strength of passion, like wind loudest in 
an empty house, constitute his character. The first 
three lines happily state the nature and foundation of 
the friendship between him and lago — the purse — as 
also the contrast of Roderigo's intemperance of mind 
with lago's coolness, the coolness of a preconceiving 
experimenter. Roderigo turns off to Othello [calling 
him thick lips\\ and here comes one, if not the only, 
seeming justification of our blackamoor or negro 
Othello. Even if we supposed this an uninterrupted 
tradition of the theater, and that Shakespeare himself, 
from want of scenes, and the experience that nothing 
could be too marked for the senses of his audience, 
had practically sanctioned it, would this prove aught 



IN TR OD UC TION. 29 

concerning his own intention as a poet for all ages ? 
Can we imagine him so utterly ignorant as to make a 
barbarous negro plead royal birth — at a time, too, 
when negroes were not known except as slaves ? As 
for lago's language to Brabantio, it implies merely that 
Othello was a Moor, that is, black. Though I think 
the rivalry of Roderigo sufficient to account for his wil- 
ful confusion of Moor and negro, yet, even if com- 
pelled to give this up, I should think it only adapted 
for the acting of the day, and should complain of an 
enormity built on a single" word, in direct contra- 
diction to lago's ' Barbary Horse.' Besides, if we 
could in good earnest believe Shakespeare ignorant 
of the distinction, still why should we adopt one disa- 
greeable possibility instead of a ten times greater and 
more pleasing probability? It is a common error to 
mistake the epithets applied by the dramatis personcB 
to each other as truly descriptive of what the audience 
ought to see or know. No doubt Desdemona saw- 
Othello's visage in his mind; yet, as we are consti- 
tuted, and most surely as an English audience was dis- 
posed in the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
would be something monstrous to conceive this beau- 
tiful Venetian girl falling in love with a veritable 
negro. It would argue adisproportionateness, a want 
of balance in Desdemona, which Shakespeare does not 
appear to have in the least contemplated. 

'** lago's speech — 'Virtue? a fig! 't is in ourselves 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

that we are thus,' etc., comprises the passionless char- 
acter of lago. It is all will in intellect; and therefore 
lie is here a bold partisan of the truth, but yet of a 
truth converted into a falsehood by the absence of all 
the necessary modifications caused by the frail nature 
■of man. And then comes the last sentiment — " Our 
raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted lusts, 
whereof I take this, that you call love, to be a sect 
or scion!' Here is the true lagoism of, alas! how 
many! Note lago's pride of mastery in the repetition 
of ' Go, make money' ' to his anticipated dupe, even 
•stronger than his love of lucre: and, when Roderigo is 
completely won, when the effect has been fully pro- 
duced, the repetition of triumph — 'Go to; farewell; 
put money enough in your purse! ' The remainder — 
lago's soliloquy — the motive-hunting of a motiveless 
malignity — how awful it is! Yea, whilst he is still al- 
lowed to bear the divine image, it is too fiendish for 
his own steady view, for the lonely gaze of a being 
next to devil, and not quite devil — and yet a character 
which Shakespeare has attempted and executed, with- 
out disgust and without scandal! " — Coleridge'. 



DRAMATIS PERSONS. 

Duke of Venice. 

Brabantio, a senator; father to Desdemona. 

Two other Senators. 

Gratiano, brother to Brabantio. 

LoDOVico, kinsman to Brabantio. 

Othello, the Moor. 

Cassio, lieutenant to Othello. 

Iago, ancient to Othello. 

Roderigo, a Venetian gentleman. 

MoNTANO, Othello's predecessor in the government 

of Cyprus. 
Clown, servant to Othello. 
Herald. 

Desdemona, wife to Othello. 
Emilia, wife to Iago. 
BiANCA, a courtezan. 

Scene: For the First Act, in Venice; during the rest 
of the Play, at a Seaport in Cyprus. 

32 



OTHELLO. 



ACT L 

Scene I. Venice. A street. 
Enter RODERIGO and Iago. 

Rod. Tush ! never tell me ; I take it much 
unkindly 
That thou, Iago, who hast had my purse 
As if the strings were thine, shouldst know of 
this. 
Iago. 'Sblood ; but you'll not hear me. 
If ever I did dream of such a matter, 
Abhor me. 

Rod. Thou told'st me thou didst hold him 

in thy hate. 
Iago. Despise me if I do not. Three great 
ones of the city, 
In personal suit to make me his lieutenant, 
Off-capp'd to him : and, by the faith of man, lo. 

I know my price, I'm worth no worse a place. 
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,. 
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance 
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war, 

33 



34 OTHELLO. [act i. 

And, in conclusion, 

Nonsuits my mediators. For, " Certes," says he, 
" I have already chose my officer." 
And what was he } 
Forsooth, a great arithmetician, 
20 One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, 
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife, 
That never set a squadron in the field, 
Nor the division of a battle knows 
More than a spinster; unless the bookish 

theoric, 
Wherein the toged consuls can propose 
As masterly as he : mere prattle, without 

practice, 
Is all his soldiership. But he, sir, had the elec- 
tion : 
And I, — of whom his eyes had seen the proof 
At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds 
30 Christian and heathen, — must be be-le'd and 
calm'd 
By debitor and creditor : this counter-caster. 
He in good time must his lieutenant be, 
And I, God bless the mark ! his Moorship's 
ancient. 
Rod. By heaven, I rather would have been his 

hangman. 
lago. Why, there's no remedy; 't is the curse 
of service, 
Preferment goes by letter and affection, 
And not by old gradation, where each second 
Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge your- 
self 
Whether I in any just term am afiin'd 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 35 

To love the Moor. 

Rod. I would not follow him then. 40 

lago. Oh, sir, content you ; 

I follow him to serve my turn upon him : 
We cannot all be masters, nor all masters 
Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark 
Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave 
That, doting on his own obsequious bondage, 
Wears out his time, much like his master's ass. 
For nought but provender ; and when he's old, 

cashier'd : 
Whip me such honest knaves ! Others there are 
Who, trimm'd in forms and visages of duty, 50 

Keep yet their hearts attending on themselves ; 
And, throwing but shows of service on their 

lords. 
Well thrive by them ; and, when they've lin'd 

their coats. 
Do themselves homage. These fellows have 

some soul ; 
And such a one do I profess myself. For, sir. 
It is as sure as you are Roderigo, 
Were I the Moor I would not be lago. 
In following him I follow but myself; 
Heaven is my judge, not I for love and duty. 
But seeming so, for my peculiar end : 60 

For, when my outward action doth demonstrate 
The native act and figure of my heart 
In compliment extern, 't is not long after 
But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve 
For daws to peck at : I am not what I am. 
Rod. What a full fortune does the thick-lips 

owe. 



36 OTHELLO. [act i. 

If he can carry it thus ! 

I ago. Call up her father, 

Rouse him ; make after him, poison his delight, 
Proclaim him in the streets; incense her kins- 
men ; 
70 And, though he in a fertile climate dwell. 

Plague him with flies ; though that his joy be 

Yet throw such chances of vexation on t 
As it may lose some color. 

Rod. Here is her father's house ; I'll call aloud. 
lago. Do, with like timorous accent and dire 
yell 
As when, by night and negligence, the fire 
Is spied in populous cities. 
Rod. What, ho ! Brabantio ! Signior Brabantio, 

ho! 
lago. Awake ! what, ho ! Brabantio ! thieves ! 
thieves ! 
80 Look to your house, your daughter, and your 
bags ; 
Thieves ! thieves ! 

Brabantio, above. 

Bra. What is the reason of this terrible sum- 
mons ? 
What is the matter there ? 

Rod. Signior, is all your family within } 
lago. Are your doors lock'd ? 
Bi^a. Why, wherefore ask you this } 

lago. Zounds, sir, you 're robb'd ; for shame, 
put on your gown; 
Your heart is burst, you have lost half your soul : 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 37 

Awake the snorting citizens with the bell : 
Arise, I say. 

Bra. What ! have you lost your wits ? 

Rod. Most reverend signior, do you know my 
voice ? 

Bra. Not I ; what are you ? 90 

Rod. My name is Roderigo. 

Bra. The worser welcome : 

I've charged thee not to haunt about my doors : 
In honest plainness thou hast heard me say 
My daughter's not for thee; and now, in mad- 
ness, 
Being full of supper and distempering draughts. 
Upon malicious bravery dost thou come 
To start my quiet. 

Rod. Sir, sir, sir, — 

Bra. But thou must needs be sure 

My spirit and my place have in their power 
To make this bitter to thee. 

Rod. Patience, good sir. 100 

Bra. What tell'st thou me of robbing.^ this 
is Venice ; 
My house is not a grange. 

Rod. Most grave Brabantio, 

In simple and pure soul I come to you, 

lago. Zounds, sir, you are one of those that 
will not serve God, if the devil bid you. Be- 
cause we come to do you service, you think we 
are ruffians. 

Bra. Thou art a villain. 

lago. You are — a senator. 

Bra. This thou shalt answer. I know thee, 
Roderigo. 



38 OTHELLO. [act i. 

Rod. Sir, I will answer anything. But, I be- 
seech you, 
If 't be your pleasure and most wise consent, 

no As partly I find it is, that your fair daughter. 
At this odd-even and dull watch o' the night. 
Transported, with no worse nor better guard 
But with a knave of common hire, a gondolier, 
To the gross clasps of a lascivious Moor, — ■ 
If this be Icnown to you and your allowance, 
We then have done you bold and saucy wrongs ; 
But, if you know not this, my manners tell me 
We have your wrong rebuke. Do riot believe 
That, from the sense of all civility, 

I20 I thus would play and trifle with your reverence: 
Your daughter, — if you have not given her 

leave, — 
I say again, hath made a gross revolt ; 
Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes 
In an extravagant and wheeling stranger 
Of here and everywhere. Straight satisfy your- 
self : 
If she be in her chamber or your house. 
Let loose on me the justice of the state 
For thus deluding you. 

Bra. Strike on the tinder, ho ! 

Give me a taper ; call up all my people : 

130 This accident is not unlike my dream ; 
Belief of it oppresses me already: 
Light, I say ! light ! [Exz't frofn above. 

lago. Farewell ; for I must leave you : 
It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place, 
To be produc'd — as, if I stay, I shall — 
Against the Moor; for, I do know, the state — 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 39 

However this may gall him with some check — 
Cannot with safety cast him; for he's embarked 
With such loud reason to the Cyprus wars, 
Which e'en now stand in act, that, for their souls, 
Anotlier of his fathom they have none 140 

To lead their business ; in which regard, 
Though I do hate him as I do hell-pains, 
Yet, for necessity of present life, 
I must show out a flag and sign of love. 
Which is indeed but sign. That you shall surely 

find him. 
Lead to the Sagittary the raised search; 
And there will I be with him. So, farewell. 

[Exit. 

Enter, beloiv, Brabantio, and Servants with 
torches. 

Bra. It is too true an evil; gone she is ! 
And what's to come of my despised time 
Is nought but bitterness. — Now, Roderigo, 150 

Where didst thou see her.^ — O unhappy girl ! — 
With the Moor, say'st thou.? — Who would be a 

father !— 
How didst thou know 't was she,? — Oh, she 

deceives me 
Past thought !— What said she to you .?— Get 

more tapers ; 
Raise all my kindred. — Are they married, think 
you? 
Rod. Truly, I think they are. 
Bra. O heaven ! — How got she out } — O trea- 
son of the blood ! — 



40 OTHELLO. , [act i. 

Fathers, from hence trust not your daughters' 

minds 
By what you see them act. — Is there not charms 
i6o By which the property of youth and maidhood 
May be abus'd? Have you not read, Roderigo, 
Of some such thing ? 

Rod. Yes, sir, I have indeed. 

Bra. Call up my brother. — Oh, would you had 
had her ! — 
Some one way, some another. — Do you know 
Where we may apprehend her and the Moor.^ 
Rod. I think I can discover him, if you please 
To get good guard and go along with me. 
Bra. Pray you, lead on. At every house I'll 
call; 
I may command at most ; — Get weapons, ho ! 
170 And raise some special officers of night. — 

On, good Roderigo ; I'll deserve your pains. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene ii. Another street. 

Enter Othello, Iago, and Attendants with 
torches. 

Iago. Though in the trade of war I have slain 
men, 
Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience 
To do no contriv'd murder : I lack iniquity 
Sometime to do me service : Nine or ten times 
I'd thought t' have yerk'd him here under the ribs. 

0th. 'T is better as it is. 

Iago. Nay, but he prated, 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 41 

And spoke such scurvy and provoking terms 

Against your honor, 

That, with the little godliness I have, 

I did full hard forbear him. But, I pray you, 

sir, 10 

Are you fast married ? Be assur'd of this, 
That the magnifico is much belov'd. 
And hath in his effect a voice potential 
As double as the duke's : he will divorce you, 
Or put upon you what restraint and grievance 
The law, with all his might t' enforce it on. 
Will give him cable. 

0th. Let him do his spite : 

My services which I have done the signiory 
Shall out-tongue his complaints. 'T is yet to 

know,^ 
Which, when I know that boasting is an honor, 20 
I shall promulgate — I fetch my life and being 
From men of royal siege, and my demerits 
May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune 
As this that I have reach'd : for know, lago. 
But that I love the gentle Desdemona, 
I would not my unhoused, free condition 
Put into circumscription and confine 
For the sea's worth. But, look I what lights 

come yond } 
lago. Those are the raised father and his 

friends : 
You were best go in. 

0th. Not I ; I must be found : 30 

My parts, my title, and my perfect soul 
Shall manifest me rightly. Is it they } 
lago. By Janus, I think no. 



42 OTHELLO. [act i. 

Enter Cassio, and certain Officers with torches, 

0th. The servants of the duke, and my lieu- 
tenant. — 
The goodness of the night upon j^ou, friends ! 
What is the news ? 

Cas. The duke does greet you, general : 

And he requires your haste-post-haste appear- 
ance, 
Even on the instant. 

0th. What 's the matter, think you } 

Cas. Something from Cyprus, as I may divine. 
40 It is a business of some heat. The galleys 
Have sent a dozen sequent messengers 
This very night at one another's heels, 
And many of the consuls, rais'd and met, 
Are at the duke's already. You have been hotly 

call'd for; 
When, being not at your lodging to be found, 
The senate hath sent about three several quests 
To search you out. 

0th. 'T is well I'm found by you. 

I will but spend a word here in the house, 
And go with you. 

Cas. Ancient, what makes he here ? 

50 lago. Faith, he to-night hath boarded a land 
carack : 
If it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever. 
Cas. I do not understand. 
lago. He's married. 

Cas. To who .-^ 



II.] OTHELLO. 43 



Re-Ente7' Othello. 

lago. Marry, to — Come, captain, will you go ? 
0th. Ha' with you. 

Cas. Here comes another troop to seek for 

you. 
lago. It is Brabantio. — General, be advis'd ; 
He comes to bad intent. 

Enter BRABANTIO, RoDERiGO, and Officers 
with torches. 

0th, Holla ! stand there ! 

Rod. Signior, it is the Moor. 

Bra. Down with him, thief! {^l^hey draw on 

both sides. 

lago. You, Roderigo ! come, sir, I 'm for you. 

0th. Keep up your bright swords, for the dew 
will rust them. 
Good signior, you shall more command with 

years 6o 

Than with your weapons. 

Bra. O thou foul thief, where hast thou stow'd 
my daughter ? 
Damn'd as thou art, thou hast enchanted her; 
For I'll refer me to all things of sense, 
If she in chains of magic were not bound, 
Whether a maid so tender, fair, and happy. 
So opposite to marriage that she shunn'd 
The wealthy curled darlings of our nation, 
Would ever have, t' incur a general mock, 
Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom ']0 

Of such a thing as thou,— to fear, not to delight. 
Judge me the world, if 't is not gross in sense 



44 OTHELLO. [act i. 

That thou hast practis'd on her with foul 

charms, — 
Abus'd her delicate youth with drugs or minerals 
That waken motion : — I'll have 'f disputed on ; 
'T is probable and palpable to thinking. 
I therefore apprehend and do attach thee 
For an abuser of the world, a practiser 
Of arts inhibited and out of warrant. 
80 Lay hold upon him ; if he do resist, 
Subdue him at his peril. 

0th. Hold your hands, 

Both of you my inclining and the rest ! 
Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it 
Without a prompter. — Where will you that I go 
To answer this your charge ? 

Bra. To prison, till fit time 

Of law and course of direct session 
Call thee to answer. 

0th. What if I do obey ? 

How may the duke be therewith satisfied, 
Whose messengers are here about my side, 
90 Upon some present business of the state. 
To bring me to him ? 

Off. 'T is true, most worthy signior. 

The duke's in council ; and your noble self, 
I 'm sure, is sent for. 

Bra. How.^ the duke in council 

In this time of the night .^ — Bring him away: 
Mine's not an idle cause : the duke himself 
Or any of my brothers of the state 
Cannot but feel this wrong as 't were their own ; 
For, if such actions may have passage free, 
Bond-slaves and pagans shall our statesmen be. 

\Exe21nt, 



III.] OTHELLO. 45 



Scene III. The Same. A Cou7icil Chamber. 

The Duke and Senators sitting ; Officers at- 
tending. 

Duke. There is no composition in these news 
That gives them credit. 

First Sen. Indeed, they're disproportion 'd : 
My letters say a hundred and seven galleys. 

Duke. And mine, a hundred and forty. 

Sec. Sen. And mine, two hundred : 

But, though they jump not on a just account — 
As in these cases, where the aim reports, 
'T is oft with difference — yet do they all confirm 
A Turkish fleet, and bearing up to Cyprus. 

Duke. Nay, it is possible enough to judgment : 
I do not so secure me in the error, jq 

But the main article I do approve 
In fearful sense. 

Sailor. [ Within?^ What, ho ! what, ho ! what, 
ho! 

Oj^. A messenger from the galleys. 

Enter a Sailor. 

Duke. Now what's the business ? 

Sailor. The Turkish preparation makes for 
Rhodes; 
So was I bid report here to the state 
By Signior Angelo. 

Duke. How say you by this change? 

First Sen. This cannot be 

By no assay of reason ; 't is a pageant 
To keep us in false gaze. When we consider 



46 OTHELLO. [act i. 

20 Th' importancy of Cyprus to the Turk ; 
And let ourselves again but understand 
That, as it more concerns the Turk than Rhodes, 
So may he with more facile question bear it, 
For that it stands not in such warlike brace. 
But altogether lacks the abilities 
That Rhodes is dress'd in ; — if we make thought 

of this, 
We must not think the Turk is so unskilful 
To leave that latest which concerns him first, 
Neglecting an attempt of ease and gam 
30 To wake and wage a danger profitless. 

Duke. Nay, in all confidence, he's not for 

Rhodes. 
Off. Here is more news. 

Enter a Messenger. 

Mess. The Ottomites, reverend and gracious, 
Steering with due course towards the isle of 

Rhodes; 
Have there injointed with an after fleet. 

First Seji. Ay, so I thought. — How many, as 

you guess } 
Mess. Of thirty sail : and now they do re-stem 
Their backward course, bearing with frank ap- 
pearance 
Their purposes towards Cyprus. Signior Mon- 
tano, 
40 Your trusty and most valiant servitor. 
With his free duty recommends you thus, 
And prays you to believe him. 

Duke. 'T is certain, then, for Cyprus. 
Marcus Luccicos. is not he in town } 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 47 

First Sen. He's now in Florence. > 

Duke. Write from us to him, post-post-haste 

despatch. 
First Sen. Here comes Brabantio and the 
valiant Moor. 

Enter Brabantio, Othello, Iago, Roderigo, 
attd Officers. 

Duke. Valiant Othello, we must straight em- 
ploy you 
Against the general enemy Ottoman. — 

[ To Bra. 
I did not see you ; welcome, gentle signior ; 50 

We lack'd your counsel and your help to-night. 

Bra. So did I yours. Good your grace, par- 
don me; 
Neither my place nor aught I heard of business 
Hath rais'd me from my bed; nor doth the gen- 
eral care 
Take hold on me ; for my particular grief 
Is of so flood-gate and o'erbearing nature 
That it engluts and swallows other sorrows 
And it is still itself. 

Duke. Why, what's the matter .? 

Bra. My daughter! Oh, my daughter! 

Sen. Dead.? 

Bra. Ay, to me; 

She is abus'd, stol'n from me, and corrupted 60 
By spells and med'cines bought of mounte- 
banks ; 
For nature so preposterously to err, 
Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense. 
Sans witchcraft could not. 



48' OTHELLO. [act i. 

Duke. Whoe'er he be that in this foul pro- 
* ceeding 
Hath thus beguil'd your daughter of herself 
And you of her, the bloody book of law 
You shall yourself read in the bitter letter 
After your own sense ; yea, though our proper 

son 
Stood in your action. 
70 Bra. Humbly I thank your grace. 

Here is the man, this Moor, whom now, it 

seems, 
Your special mandate for the state affairs 
Hath hither brought. 

All. We are very sorry for 't. 

Duke. What, in your own part, can you say to 
this? [r^ Othello. 

Bra. Nothing, but this is so. 
0th. Most potent, grave, and reverend sig- 
niors, 
My very noble and approv'd good masters, 
That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter. 
It is most true; true, I have married her; 
80 The very head and front of my offending 

Hath this extent, no more. Rude am I in my 

speech. 
And little bless'd with the soft phrase of peace; 
For, since these arms of mine had seven years' 

pith. 
Till now some nine moons wasted, they have 

used 
Their dearest action in the tented field ; 
And little of this great world can I speak, 
More than pertains to feats of broil and battle. 



sc. ni.] OTHELLO. 49 

And therefore little shall I grace my cause 

In speaking for myself, Yet, by your gracious 

patience, 
I will a round unvarnish'd tale deliver 90^ 

Of my whole course of love ; wliat drugs, what 

charms, 
What conjuration, and what mighty magic, — 
For such proceeding I am charg'd withal, — 
I won his daughter. 

Bra. A maiden never bold ; 

Of spirit so still and quiet that her motion 
Blush'd at herself: and she, in spite of nature. 
Of years, of country, credit, everything. 
To fall in love with what she fear'd to look on ! 
It is a judgment maim/d and most imperfect 
That will confess perfection so could err 100 

Against all rules of nature, and must be driven 
To find out practices of cunning hell. 
Why this should be. I therefore vouch again 
That with some mixtures powerful o'er the 

blood. 
Or with some dram conjur'd to this effect, 
He wrought upon her. 

Duke. To vouch this is no proof, 

Without more wider and more overt test 
Than these thin habits and poor likelihoods 
Of modern seeming do prefer against him. 

First Sen. But, Othello, speak: no 

Did you by indirect and forced courses 
Subdue and poison this young maid's affections? 
Or came it by request, and such fair question 
As soul to soul affordeth.^ 

0th. I do beseech you, 



50 OTHELLO. [act i. 

Send for the lady to the Sagittary, 
And let her speak of me before her father. 
If you do find me foul in her^ report, 
, The trust, the office I do hold of you. 
Not only take away, but let your sentence 
Even fall upon my life. 
1 20 Duke, Fetch Desdemona hither. 

0th. Ancient, conduct them : you best know 
the place. \Exetmt Iago and Attendants. 
And, till she come, as truly as to heaven 
I do confess the vices of my blood. 
So justly to your grave ears I'll present 
How I did thrive in this fair lady's love 
And she in mine. 

Duke. Say it, Othello. 

0th. Her father lov'd me ; oft invited me, 
Still question'd me the story of my life 
130 From year to year; the battles, sieges, fortunes 
That I have pass'd. 

I ran it through, even from my boyish days 
To th' very moment that he bade me tell it. 
Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances; 
Of moving accidents by flood and field; 
Of hair-breadth 'scapes i' th' imminent deadly 
' breach ; 

Of being taken by the insolent foe 
And sold to slavery ; of my redemption thence 
And portance in my travels' history : 
140 Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle. 

Rough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads 

touch heaven. 
It was my hint to speak, — such was the process; 
I And of the Cannibals that each other eat, 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 51 

The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads 

Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear 

Would Desdemona seriously incline : 

But still the house affairs would draw her thence ; 

Which ever as she could with haste despatch, 

She'd come again, and with a greedy ear 

Devour up my discourse : which I observing, 150 

Took once a pliant hour, and found good means 

To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart 

That I would all my pilgrimage dilate, 

Whereof by parcels she had something heard. 

But not intentively : I did consent, 

And often did beguile her of her tears, 

When I did speak of some distressful stroke 

That my youth suffer'd. My story being done, 

She gave me for my pains a world of sighs : 

She swore, in faith, 't was strange, 't was passing 

' strange, 160 

'T was pitiful, 't was wondrous pitiful : 
She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd 
That heaven had made her such a man : she 

thank'd me. 
And bade me, if I had a friend that lov'd her, 
I should but teach him how to tell my story, 
And that would woo her. Upon this hint I 

spake : 
She lov'd me for the dangers I had passed. 
And I lov'd her that she did pity them. 
This only is the witchcraft I have used ; — 
Here comes the lady, let her witness it. 170 



52 OTHELLO. [act i. 

E7iter Desdemona, Iago, and Attendants. 

Duke. I think this tale would win my daughter 
too. 
Good Brabantio, 

Take up this mangled matter at the best : 
Men do their broken weapons rather use 
Than their bare hands. 

B7'a. I pray you, hear her speak ; 

If she confess that she was half the wooer, 
Destruction on my head if my bad blame 
Light on the man ! — Come hither, gentle mis- 
tress : 
Do you perceive in all this noble company 
Where most you owe obedience ? 

1 80 Des. My noble father, 

I do perceive here a divided duty : 
To you I'm bound for life and education ; 
My life and education both do learn me 
How to respect you ; you are the lord of duty ; — 
I'm hitherto your daughter : but here's my 

husband ; 
And so much duty as my mother show'd 
To you, preferring you before her father. 
So much I challenge that I may profess 
Due to the Moor my lord. 
Bra. God b' with you ! — I've done.— 

190 Please it your grace, on to the state affairs. 
Come hither, Moor: 

I here do give thee that with all my heart 
Which, but thou hast already, with all my heart 
I would keep from thee. — For your sake, jewel, 
I'm glad at soul I have no other child; 



sc. Ill] OTHELLO. 53 

For thy escape would teach me tyranny, 
To hang clogs on them. — I have done, my lord. 
Duke. Let me speak like yourself and lay a 
sentence, 
Which, as a grise or step, may help these lovers 200 
Into your favor. 

When remedies are past, the griefs are ended 
By seeing the worst, which late on hopes de- 
pended. 
To mourn a mischief that is past and gone 
Is the next way to draw new mischief on. 
What cannot be preserv'd when Fortune takes, 
Patience her injury a mockery makes. 
The robb'd that smiles steals something from 

the thief; 
He robs himself that spends a bootless grief. 

Bra. So let the Turk of Cyprus us beguile ; 210 
We lose it not so long as we can smile. 
He bears the sentence well that nothing bears 
But the free comfort which from thence he 

hears ; 
But he bears both the sentence and the sorrow 
That to pay grief must of poor patience borrow. 
These sentences to sugar or to gall, 
Being strong on both sides, are equivocal : 
But words are words ; I never yet did hear 
That the bruis'd heart was pierced through the 

ear. — 
Beseech you, now to the affairs of state. 220 

Duke. The Turk with a most mighty prepara- 
tion makes for Cyprus. Othello, the fortitude 
of the place is best known to you ; and, though 



54 OTHELLO. [act i. 

v/e have there a substitute of most allowed suffi- 
ciency, yet opinion, a sovereign mistress of 
effects, throws a more safer voice on you : you 
must therefore be content to slubber the gloss 
of your new fortunes with this more stubborn 
and boisterous expedition. 
230 Oth. The tyrant custom, most grave senators. 
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war 
My thrice-driven bed of down : I do agnize 
A natural and prompt alacrity 
I find in hardness, and do undertake 
These present wars against the Ottomites. 
Most humbly therefore bending to your state, 
I crave fit disposition for my wife. 
Due reference of place and exhibition, 
With such accommodation and besort 
As levels with her breeding. 
240 Duke. ' If you please, . 

Be't at her father's. 

jBra. I'll not have it so. 

O^/i. Nor I. 

Des. Nor I ; I would not there reside 

To put my father in impatient thoughts 
By being m his eye. Most gracious duke, 
To my unfolding lend your prosperous ear; 
And let me find a charter in your voice 
T' assist my simpleness. 

Duke. What would you, Desdemona ? 

Des. That I did love the Moor to live with 
him, 
250 My downright violence and scorn of fortunes 
May trumpet to the world : my heart's subdued 
Even to the very quality of my lord : 



sc. III.] OTHRLLO. 55 

I saw Othello's visage in his mind ; 

And to his honors and his valiant parts 

Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate. 

So that, dear lords, if I be left behind, 

A moth of peace, and he go to the war, 

The rites for which I love him are bereft me, 

And I a heavy interim shall support 

By his dear absence. Let me go with him. 260 

0th. Let her have your voices. 
Vouch with me, heaven, I therefore beg it not 
To please the palate of my appetite, 
Nor to comply with heat — the young affects 
In me defunct — and proper satisfaction, 
But to be free and bounteous to her mind. 
And heaven defend your good souls, that you 

think 
I will your serious and great business scant 
For she is with me. No, when light-wing'd toys 
Of feather'd Cupid seel with wanton dulness 270 
My speculative and ofiic'd instruments. 
That my disports corrupt and taint my business, 
Let housewives make a skillet of my helm, 
And all indign and base adversities 
Make head against my estimation. 

Duke. Be it as you shall privately determine, 
Either for her stay or going ; the affair cries 

haste, 
And speed must answer it. 

Sen. You must away to-night. 

0th. With all my heart. 

Duke. At nine i' the morning here we'll meet 

again. 280 

Othello, leave some officer behind. 



56 OTHELLO. [act i. 

And he shall our commission bring to you, 
With such things else of quality and respect 
As doth import you. 

0th. So please your grace, my ancient ; 

A man he is of honesty and trust : 
To his conveyance I assign my wife, 
With what else needful your good grace shall 

think 
To be sent after me. 

Duke. Let it be so. 

Good night to every one. — And, noble signior, 

ITo Bra. 
290 If virtue no delighted beauty lack, 

Your son-in-law is far more fair than black. 
First Sen. Adieu, brave Moor ! use Desde- 

mona well. 
Bra. Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to 
see ; 
She has deceiv'd her father, and may thee. 

{^Exeunt Duke, Senators, Officers, etc. 
Oth. My life upon her faith ! Honest lago. 
My Desdemona must I leave to thee ; 
I prithee let thy wife attend on her; 
And bring them after in the best advantage. — 
Come Desdemona, I have but an hour 
300 Of love, of worldly matter, and direction 

To spend with thee: we must obey the time. 

\Exeitnt Othello and Desdemona. 
Rod. lago, — 

lago. What say'st thou, noble heart } 
Rod. What will I do, think'st thou } 
lago. Why, go to bed and sleep. 
Rod. I will incontinently drown myself. 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 57 

lago. If thou dost I shall never love thee after. 
Why, thou silly gentleman ! 

Rod. It is silliness to live when to live is tor- 
ment ; and then have we a prescription to die 310 
when death is our physician. 

lago. Oh, villanous ! I have look'd upon the 
world for four times seven years; and since I 
could distinguish betwixt a benefit and an in- 
jury, I never found man that knew how to love 
himself. Ere I would say I would drown myself 
for the love of a guinea-hen, I would change my 
humanity with a baboon. 

Rod. What should I do .^ I confess it is my 
shame to be so fond; but it is not in my virtue 320 
to amend it. 

Icigo. Virtue ! a fig ! 't is in ourselves that we 
are thus or thus. Our bodies are our gardens, 
to the which our wills are gardeners; so that, if 
we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop, 
and weed up thyme, supplv it with one gender 
of herbs, or distract it with many, eitlier to 
have it sterile with idleness or manured with 
industry, why, the power and corrigible authority 
of this lies in our wills. If the balance of our 330 
lives had not one scale of reason to poise another 
of sensuality, the blood and baseness of our na- 
tures would conduct us to most preposterous 
conclusions : but we have reason to cool our 
raging motions, our carnal stings, our unbitted 
lusts, whereof I take this that you call love to be 
a sect or scion. 

Rod. It cannot be. 

lago. It is merely a lust of the blood, and a 



58 OTHELLO. [act i. 

340 permission of the will. Come, be a man. 
Drown thyself ! drown cats and blind puppies. 
I have professed me thy friend, and I confess me 
knit to thy deserving with cables of perdurable 
toughness. I could never better stead thee 
than now. Put money in thy purse ; follow thou 
the wars ; defeat thy favor with an usurp'd beard; 
I say, put money in thy purse. It cannot be 
that Desdemona should long continue her love 
to the Moor, — put money in thy purse, — nor he 

350 his to her: it was a violent commencement, 
and thou shalt see an answerable sequestration : 
— put but money in thy purse. — These Moors 
are changeable in their wills ; — fill thy purse with 
money ; — the food that to him now is as luscious 
as locusts, shall be to him shortly as bitter as 
coloquintida. She must change for youth ; she 
will find the error of her choice : she must have 
change, she must : therefore put money in thy 
purse. If thou wilt needs damn thyself, do it a 

360 more delicate way than drowning. Make all 
the money thou canst : if sanctimony and a frail 
vow betwixt an erring barbarian and a supersub- 
tle Venetian be not too hard for my wits and all 
the tribe of hell, thou shalt enjoy her; therefore 
make money. Drown thyself! it is clean out of 
the way: seek thou rather to be hang'd in com- 
passing thy joy than to be drowned and go with- 
out her. 

Rod. Wilt tliou be fast to my hopes, if I de- 

370 pend on the issue. 

lago. Thou art sure of me. Go, make money. 
I have told thee often, and I re-tell thee again 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 59 

and again, I hate the Moor ; my cause is hearted ; 
thine hath no less reason. Let us be conjunc- 
tive is our revenge against him ; if thou canst 
dishonor him, thou dost thyself a pleasure, me a 
sport. There are many events in the womb of 
time which will be delivered. Traverse ; go, 
provide thy money. We will have more of this 
to-morrow. Adieu. 380 

Rod. Where shall we meet i' the morning? 

I ago. At my lodging. 

Rod. I'll be with thee betimes. 

lago. Go to ; farewell. Do you hear, Rod- 



erigo 



Rod. What say you ? 

lago. No more of drowning, do you hear? 

Rod. I'm changed: I'll go sell all my land. 

lago. Go to : farewell ! put money enough in 
your purse. {^Exit Roderigo. 

Thus do I ever make my fool my purse ; 
For I mine own gain'd knowledge should pro- 
fane, 390 
If I would time expend with such a snipe. 
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor. 
He holds me well ; 

The better shall my purpose work on him. 
Cassio's a proper man : let me see now ; — 
To get his place and to plume up my will 
In double knavery — How? how ? — Let's see : — 
After some time, t' abuse Othello's ear 
That he is too familiar with his wife. 
He hath a person and a smooth dispose 400 

To be suspected, framed to make women false. 
The Moor is of a free and open nature. 



6o OTHELLO. [act ii. 

That thinks men honest that but seem to be so^ 
And will as tenderly be led by th' nose, 
As asses are. 

I have 't. It isengender'd. Hell and night 
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's, 
light. {^Exit. 



ACT II. 

Scene I. A Seaport Town in Cyprus. Ati 
open place near the quay. 

Enter Montano and two Gentlemen. 

Mon. What from ihe cape can you discern at 

sea } 
First Gent. Nothing at all : it is a high- 
wrought flood : 
I cannot 'twixt the heaven and'the main 
Descry a sail. 

Mo7t. Methinks the wind hath spoke aloud at 
land ; 
A fuller blast ne'er shook our battlements : 
If it hath ruffian'd so upon the sea. 
What ribs of oak, when mountains melt on them. 
Can hold the mortise.^ What shall we hear of 
this.? 
[o Sec. Gent. A segregation of the Turkish fleet : 
For, do but stand upon the foaming shore. 
The chidden billow seems to pelt the clouds ; 
The wind-shak'd surge, wdth high and monstrous 

mane, 
Seems to cast water on the burning bear, 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. , 6i 

And quench the guards of th' ever-fixed pole : 
I never did like molestation view 
On the unchafed flood. 

Mon. If that the Turkish fleet 

Be not enshelter'd and embay'd, they 're drown'd; 
It is impossible they bear it out. 

Enter a Third Gentleman, 

Third Gent. News, lads ! our wars are done. 20 
The desperate tempest hath so bang'd the Turks 
That their designment halts. A noble ship of 

Venice 
Hath seen a grievous wreck and sufferance 
On most part of their fleet. 

Mon. How ! is this true ? 

Third Gent. The ship is here put in, 

A Veronessa. Michael Cassio, 
Lieutenant to the warlike Moor Othello, 
Is come on shore ; the Moor himself's at sea, 
And is in full commission here for Cyprus. 

Mo7i. I 'm glad on't; 't is a worthy governor. 30 

Third Gent. But this same Cassio, though he 
speak of comfort 
Touching the Turkish loss, yet he looks sadly. 
And prays the Moor be safe; for they were 

parted 
With foul and violent tempest. 

Mon. Pray heaven he be; 

For I have serv'd him, and the man commands 
Like a full soldier. Let's to the seaside, — ho ! 
As well to see the vessel that's come in 
As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello, 
Even till we make the main and th' aerial blue 



62 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

An indistinct regard. 
40 Third Gent. Come, let's do so ; 

For every minate is expectancy 
Of more arrivance. 

Enter Cassio. 

Cas. Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike 
isle, 
That so approve the Moor ! Oh, let the heavens 
Give him defence against the elements, 
For I have lost him on a dangerous sea. 
Mon. Is he well shipp'd ? 

Cas. His bark is stoutly timber'd, and his pilot 
Of every expert and approv'd allowance ; 
50 Therefore my hopes, not surfeited to death. 
Stand in bold cure. 

\A cry within, A sail, a sail, a sail ! 

Enter a Fourth Gentleman. 

Cas. What noise? • 

Fourth Geiit. The town is empty; on the brow 
o' the sea 
Stand ranks of people, and they cry "A sail !" 
Cas. My hopes do shape him for the governor. 
Gent. They do discharge their shot of cour- 
tesy : — \Gu7ts heard. 
Our friends, at least. 

Cas. I pray you, sir, go forth, 

And give us truth who't is that is arriv'd. 

Gent. I shall. [Exit. 

60 Mon. But, good lieutenant, is your general 
wiv'd ? 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 63 

Cas. Most fortunately : he hath achiev'd a 
maid 
That paragons description and wild fame ; 
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens, 
And in th' essential vesture of creation 
Does tire the ingener. — 

Re-eiiter Second Gentleman. 

How now ! who has put in ? 

Sec. Gent. 'T is one lago, ancient to the gen- 
eral. 

Cas. He's had most favorable and happy speed : 
Tempests themselves, high seas, and howling 

winds, 
The gutter'd rocks, and congregated sands, — 
Traitors ensteep'd to clog the guiltless keel, — 70 
As having sense of beauty, do omit 
Their mortal natures, letting go safely by 
The divine Desdemona. 

Mon. What is she } 

Cas. She that I spake of, our great captain's 
captain. 
Left in the conduct of the bold lago: 
Whose footing here anticipates our thoughs 
A se'nnight's speed. — Great Jove, Othello guard ! 
And swell his sail with thine own powerful breath 
That he may bless this bay with his tall ship, 
Give renew'd fire to our extincted spirits, 80 

And bring all Cyprus comfort ! — Oh, behold, 

Enter Desdemona, Emilia, Iago, Roderigo, 
rt?z<^/ Attendants. 

The riches of the ship is come on shore ! 



64 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

Ye men of Cyprus, let her have your knees. 
Hail to thee, lady ! and the grace of heaven, 
Before, behind thee, and on every hand 
Enwheel thee round ! 

Des. I thank you, valiant Cassio. 

What tidings can you tell me of my lord ? 
Cas. He is not yet arriv'd ; nor know I aught 
90 But that he's well and will be shortly here. 

Des. Oh, but I fear — How lost you company } 
Cas. The great contention of the sea and skies 
Parted our fellowship. But, hark ! a sail. 
*' A sail ! a sail ! '' \Guns heard within. 

Sec. Gent. They give their greeting to the cita- 
del ; 
This likewise is a friend. 

Cas. See for the news. — 

{Exit Gentleman. 
Good ancient, you are welcome.— Welcome, mis- 
tress. — {To Emilia. 
Let it not gall your patience, good lago, 
That I extend my manners ; 't is my breeding 
100 That gives me this bold show of courtesy. 

{Kissing her. 
lago. Sir, would she give you so much of her 
lips 
As of her tongue she oft bestows on me, 
You'd have enough, 

Des. Alas ! she has no speech. 
lago. In faith, too much ; 

I find it still when I have list to sleep : 
Marry, before your ladyship I grant 
She puts her tongue a little in her heart, 
And chides with thinking. 



sc. I.] OTHELLO, 65 

Emil. You have little cause to say so. 

lago. Come on, come on : you are pictures out 

of doors, no 

Bells in your parlors, wild cats in your kitchens. 
Saints in your injuries, devils being offended. 

Des. Oh, fie upon thee, slanderer! 

lago. Nay, it is true, or else I am a Turk. 

Emil. You shall not write my praise. 

lago. No, let me not. 

Des. What wouldst thou write of me if thou 
shouldst praise me } 

lago. O gentle lady, do not put me to 't ; 
For I am nothing if not critical ! 120 

Des. Come on, assay. — There's one gone to 
the harbor } 

lago. Ay, madam. 

Des. I am not merry ; but I do beguile 
The thing I am by seeming otherwise. 
Come, how wouldst thou praise me } 

lago. I am about it; but indeed my invention 
Comes from my pate as birdlime does from 

frieze, — 
It plucks out brains and all ; but my Muse labors. 
And thus she is deliver'd. 

If she be fair and wise, — fairness and wit : 130 

The one's for use, the other useth it. 

Des. Well praised ! How if she be black and 
witty } 

lago. If she be black, and thereto have a wit. 
She'll find a white that shall her blackness fit. 

Des. Worse and worse. 

Emil. How if fair and foolish } 

lago. She never yet was foolish that was fair ; 



66 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

For even her folly heip'd her to an heir. 

Des. These are old fond paradoxes, to make 

fools laugh i' the ale house. What miserable 

140 praise hast thou for her that's foul and foolish? 

lago. There's none so foul, and foolish there- 
unto, 
But does foul pranks which fair and wise ones 
do. 

Des. O heavy ignorance ! — thou praisest the 
worst best. But what praise couldst thou bestow 
on a deserving woman indeed } one that, in the 
authority of her merit, did justly put on the 
vouch of very malice itself? 

lago. She that was ever fair and never proud ; 
150 Had tongue at will and yet was never loud ; 
Never lack'd gold and yet went never gay; 
Fled from her wish and yet said, — Now I may ; 
She that, being anger'd, her revenge being nigh, 
Bade her wrong stay and her displeasure fly ; 
She that in wisdom never was so frail 
To change the cod's head for the salmon's tail ; 
She that could think and ne'er disclose her mind, 
See suitors following and not look behind ; — 
She was a wight, if ever such wight were, — 
160 Des. To do what? 

lago. To suckle fools and chronicle small beer. 

Des. O most lame and impotent conclusion ! 
Do not learn of him, Emilia, though he be thy 
husband. — How say you, Cassio? is he not a 
most profane and liberal counsellor? 

Cas. He speaks home, madam ; you may 
relish him more in the soldier than in the 
scholar. 



C. I.] OTHELLO. 67 

I ago. [Asz'de.] He takes her by the palm : ay, 
well said, whisper: with as little a web as this 170 
will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio. Ay, smile 
upon her, do ; I will gyve thee in thine own 
courtship. You say true; 't is so, indeed : if such 
tricks as these strip you out of you lieutenantry, 
it had been better you had not kissed your three 
fingers so oft, which now again you are most apt 
to play the sir in. Very good ! well kissed! an 
excellent courtesy! 't is so, indeed. Yet again 
your fingers to your lips. ^ [TrtimpeL] The Moor, 
I know his trumpet. 180 

Cas. 'T is truly so. 

Des. Let's meet him and receive him. 

Cas. Lo, where he comes ! 

Enter Othello (2;z<^ Attendants. 

0th. O my fair warrior ! 

Des. My dear Othello ! 

0th. It gives me wonder great as my content 
To see you here before me. O my soul's joy ! 
If after every tempest come such calms, 
May the winds blow till they have waken'd 

death ! 
And let the laboring bark climb hills of seas 
Olympus high, and duck again as low 190 

As hell's from heaven I If it were now to die, 
'T were now to be most happy ; for I fear 
My soul hath her content so absolute 
That not another comfort like to this 
Succeeds in unknown fate. 

Des. The heavens forbid 

But that our loves and comforts should increase 



68 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

Even as our days do grow ! 

0th. Amen to that, sweet powers ! — 

I cannot speak enough of this content, 
It stops me here ; it is too much of joy ; 
200 And this and this the greatest discords be 

[Kissing her. 
That e'er our hearts shall make ! 

lago. Oh, you are well tun'd now! 

But I'll set down the pegs that make this music, 

As honest as I am. {Aside. 

0th. Come, let us to the castle. — 

News, friends; our wars are done, the Turks are 

drown'd. 
How does my old acquaintance of this isle ? — 
Honey, you shall be well desir'd in Cyprus ; 
I 've found great love amongst them. O my 
sweet, 
210 I prattle out of fashion, and I dote 

In mine own comforts. — I prithee, good lago. 

Go to the bay and disembark my coffers : 

Bring thou the master to the citadel : 

He is a good one, and his worthiness 

Does challenge much respect. — Come, Desde- 

mona, 
Once more well met at Cyprus. 

{Exeunt Oth., Des., and Attend. 
lago. Do thou meet me presently at the har- 
bor. Come hither. If thou be'st valiant — as, 
they say, base men being in love have then a 
nobility in their natures more than is native to 
them — list me. The lieutenant to-night watches 
220 on the court of guard. First, I must tell thee this 
— Desdemona is directly in love with him. 



SCI.] OTHELLA. 69 

Rod. With him ! why, 't is not possible. 

lago. Lay thy finger thus, and let thy soul 
be instructed. Mark me with what violence 
she first loved the Moor, but for bragging and 
telling her fantastical lies : and will she love 
him still for prating? let not thy discreet heart 
thinli it. Her eye must be fed; and what de- 
light shall she have to look on the devil ? When 
the blood is made dull, there should be, again to 230 
inflame it, loveliness in favor, sympathy in years, 
manners, and beauties; all which the Moor is 
defective in. Now, for want of these required 
conveniences, her delicate tenderness will find 
itself abused, begin to heave the gorge, dis- 
relish and abhor the Moor ; very nature will in- 
struct her in it and compel her to some second 
choice. Now, sir, this granted — as it is a most 
pregnant and unforced position — who stands so 
eminent in the degree of this fortune as Cassio 240 
does.-^ — a knave very voluble ; no further con- 
scionable than in putting on the mere form of 
civil and hum.ane seeming for the better com- 
passing of his salt and most hidden loose affec- 
tion ? why, none ; why, none : a slipper and subtle 
knave, a finder of occasions, that has an eye 
can stamp and counterfeit advantages, though 
true advantage never present itself : a devilish 
knave ! Besides, the knave is handsome, young, 
and hath all those requisites in him that folly 250 
and green minds look after : a pestilent, com- 
plete knave ; and the woman hath found him 
already. 



70 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

Rod. I cannot believe that in her : she 's full 
of most blessed condition. 

lago. Blessed fig's end ! the wine she drinks 
is made of grapes: if she had been blessed, she 
would never have loved the Moor. Blessed pud- 
ding! Didst thou not see her paddle with the 
260 palm of his hand ? didst not mark that .> 

Rod. Yes, that I did ; but that was but cour- 
tesy. 
lago. Lechery, by this hand ! an index and 
obscure prologue to the history of lust and foul 
thoughts. They met so near witii their lips that 
their breaths embraced together. Villanous 
thoughts, Roderigo ! But, sir, be you ruled by 
me : I have brought you from Venice. Watch 
you to-night ; for the command, I'll lay 't upon 
270 you. Cassio knows you not; — I'll not be far 
from you : do you find some occasion to anger 
Cassio, either by speaking too loud or tainting 
his discipline or from what other course you 
please, which the time shall more favorably min- 
ister. 
Rod. Well. 

lago. Sir, he's rash, and very sudden in choler, 
and haply may strike at you ; provoke him that 
he may ; for even out of that will I cause these 
280 of Cyprus to mutiny; whose qualification shall 
come into no true taste again but by the displant- 
ing of Cassio. So shall you have a shorter jour- 
ney to 5^our desires by the means I shall then 
have to prefer them ; and the impediment most 
profitably removed, without the which there 
were no expectation of our prosperity. 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 71 

Rod. I will do this, if I can bring it to any op- 290 

portunity. 
lago. I warrant thee. Meet me by and by at 

the citadel. 
I must fetch his necessaries ashore. Farewell. 
Rod. Adieu. YExit. 

lago. That Cassio loves her, I do well believe 

it; 
That she loves him, 't is apt and of great credit ; 
The Moor — howbeit that I endure him not, — 
Is of a constant, loving, noble nature, 
And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona 
A most dear husband. Now, I do love her too; 300 
Not out of absolute lust, though peradventure 
I stand accountant for as great a sin. 
But partly led to diet my revenge, 
For that I do suspect the lusty Moor 
Hath leap'd into my seat : the thought whereof 
Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my in- 
wards ; 
And nothing can or shall content my soul 
Till I am even'd with him, wife for wife ; 
Or, failing so, yet that I put the Moor 
At least into a jealousy so strong 310 

That judgment cannot cure. Which thing to 

do, 
If this poor trash of Venice, whom I trash 
For his quick hunting, stand the putting on, 
I'll have our Michael Cassio on the hip. 
Abuse him to the Moor in the rank garb, — 
For I fear Cassio with my night-cap too ; — 
Make the Moor thank me, love me, and reward 

me 



72 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

For making him egregiously an ass 
And practising upon his peace and quiet 
320 Even to madness. 'T is here, but yet confus'd ; 
Knavery's plain face is never seen till used. 

{Exit. 
Scene II. A Street. 

Enter a Herald, with a proclamatioii ; People 
following. 

Her. It is Othello's pleasure, our noble and 
valiant general, that, upon certain tidings now- 
arrived, importing the mere perdition of the 
Turkish fleet, every man put himself into tri- 
umph : some to dance, some to make bonfires, 
each man to what sport and revels his addiction 
leads him ; for, besides these beneficial news, it 
is the celebration of his nuptial. So much was 
his pleasure should be proclaimed. All offices 
10 are open; and there is full liberty of feasting 
from this present hour of five till the bell have 
told eleven. Heaven bless the isle of Cyprus 
and our noble general Othello ! [Exeunt. 

Scene HI. A Hall in the Castle. 

Enter Othello, Desdemona, Cassio, aiid At- 
tendants. 
0th. Good Michael, look you to the guard to- 
night : 
Let's teach ourselves that honorable stop. 
Not to out-sport discretion. 

Cas. lago hath direction what to do ; 
But, notwithstanding, with my personal eye 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 73 

Willi look to 't. 

OtJi. lago is most honest. 

Michael, good night: to-morrow with your ear- 
liest \o 

Let me have speech with you. — Come, my dear 
love.— {_To Des. 

Good night. {^Exeunt Oth., Des., and Attend. 

Enter I A GO. 

Cas. Welcome, lago ; we must to the watch. 

lago. Not this hour, lieutenant; 't is not yet 
ten o' the clock. Our general cast us thus early 
for the love of his Desdemona, who let us not 
therefore blame. She is sport for Jove. 

Cas. She's a most exquisite lady. 

lago. And, I'll warrant her, full of game. 20 

Cas. Indeed, she's a most fresh and delicate 
creature. 

lago. ""/hat an eye she has ! methinks it 
sounds a parley of provocation. 

Cas An inviting eye; and yet methinks right 
modest. 

lugo. And when she speaks, is it not an alar- 
um to love.'' 

Cas. She is indeed perfection. 

lago. Well, come, lieutenant, I have a stoup of 
wine; and h©rfe without are a brace of Cyprus 30 
gallants that would fain have a measure to the 
health of black Othello. 

Cas. Not to-night, good lagd ; I have very 
poor and unhappy brains for drinking. I could 
well wish courtesy would invent some other cus- 
tom of entertainment. 



74 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

lago. Oh, they are our friends ! But one cup ; 
I'll drink for you. 
40 Cas. I have drunk but one cup to-night, and 
that was craftily qualified too, and behold what 
innovation it makes here : I am unfortunate in 
the infirmity, and dare not task my weakness 
with any more. 

lago. What, man ! 't is a night of revels : the 
gallants desire it. 

Cas. Where are they } 

lago. Here at the door ; I pray you call them 

in. 
Cas. I'll do 't ; but it dislikes me. [Exit, 

50 lago. If I can fasten but one cup upon him, 
With that which he hath drunk to-night al- 
ready, 
He'll be as full of quarrel and offence 
As my young mistress' dog. Now, my sick fool 

Roderigo, 
Whom love has turn'd almost the wrong side out. 
To Desdemona hath to-night carous'd 
Potations pottle deep ; and he's to watch. 
Three lads of Cyprus, noble, swelling spirits, 
That hold their honors in a wary distance, 
The very elements of this warlike isle, 
60 Have I to-night fluster'd with flowing cups, 
And they watch too. Now, 'motigst this flock 

of drunkards. 
Am I to put our Cassio in some action 
That they may offend the isle. But here they 

come : 
If consequence do but approve my dream. 
My boat sails freely both with wind and stream. 



[I.] OTHELLO. 75 



Re-enter Cassio, with him MONTANO, and 
Gentlemen. 

Cas. 'Fore God, they have given me a rouse 
already. 

Mon. Good faith, a little one ; not past a pint, 
as 1 am a soldier. 

lago. Some wine, ho ! 70 

And let me the canakin clink, clink, \Sings. 
And let me the canakin clink; 

A soldier's a man ; 

A life's but a span ; 
Why, then let a soldier drink. 

Some wine, boys ! [ Wine brought in. 

Cas. 'Fore God, an excellent song. 

lago. I learn'd it in England, where indeed 
they are most potent in potting: your Dane, 
your German, and your Hollander— Drink, ho! 8c 
— are nothing to your English. 

Cas. Is your Englishman so expert in his 
drinking.? 

lago. Why, he drinks you with facility your 
Dane dead drunk ; he sweats not to overthrow 
your Almain ; he gives your Hollander a vomit 
ere the next pottle can be fill'd. 

Cas. To the health of our general ! 

Mon. I am for it, lieutenant, and I'll do you 
justice. 90 

lago. O sweet England ! 

King Stephen was a worthy peer, 
His breeches cost him but a crown ; 



76 OTHELLO. [ act ii. 

He held them sixpence all too dear, 

With that he call'^ the tailor lown. 
He was a wight of high renown, 

And thou art but of low degree : 
'T is pride that pulls the country down, 
Then take thy auld cloak about thee. 
100 Some wine, ho! 

Cas. Why this is a more exquisite song than 
the other. , 

lago. Will you hear 't again .^ 
Cas. No ; for I hold him to be unworthy of 
his place that does those things. — Well, God's 
above all : and there be souls must be saved, and 
there be souls must not be saved. 
lago. It's true, good lieutenant. 
Cas. For mine own part, — no offence to the 
general nor any man of quality, — I hope to be 
saved. 
Iio lago. And so do I too, lieutenant. 

Cas. Ay, but, by your leave, not before me ; 
the lieutenant is to be saved before the ancient. 
Let's have no more of this; let's to our affairs. 
— Forgive us our sins! Gentlemen, let's look to 
our business. Do not think, gentlemen, I am 
drunk: this is my ancient; this is my right 
hand, and this is my left; — I am not drunk 
now ; I can stand well enough, and speak well 
I20 enough. 

AU. Excellent well. 

Cas. Why, very well then : you must not think 
then that I am drunk. {Exit. 

Mon. To the platform, masters; come, let's 
set the watch. 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 77 

lago. You see this fellow that is gone before ;— 
He is a soldier fit to stand by Caesar 
And give direction: and do but see his vice. 
'T is to his virtue a just equinox, 
The one as long as th' other ; 't is pity of him. 
I fear the trust Othello puts him in, 130 

On some odd time of his infirmity, 
Will shake this island. 

Mon. But is he often thus ? 

lago. 'T is evermore the prologue to his sleep 
He'll watch the horologe a double set, 
If drink rock not his cradle. 

Moil. It were well 

The general were put in mind of it. 
Perhaps he sees it not ; or his good nature 
Prizes the virtue that appears in Cassio, 
And looks not on his evils. Is not this true ? 140 

Enter RODERIGO. 

lago. How now, Roderigo .^ ^Aside. 

I pray you, after the lieutenant ; go. \Ex. Rod. 

Mon. And 't is great pity that the noble Moor 
Should hazard such a place as his own second 
With one of an ingraft infirmity : 
It were an honest action to say so 
To the Moor. 

lago. Not I, for this fair island : 

I do love Cassio well, and would do much 
To cure him of this evil. But, hark ! what noise.^ 
\Cry without — " Help ! Help ! " 

Eiiter Ca?>sio, pur sumg RODERIGO. 

Cas, You rogue ! you rascal ! 



78 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

150 Mo7i. What's the matter, lieutenant ? 
Cas. A knave teach me my duty ! 
I'll beat the knave into a twiggen bottle. 
Rod. Beat me ! 
Cas. Dost thou prate, rogue ? 

Striking RoD, 

Mon. Nay, good lieutenant ; 

I pray you, sir, hold your hand. \Staying him, 

Cas. Let me go, sir. 
Or I'll knock you o'er the mazzard. 

Mo7i. Come, come, you're drunk. 

Cas. Drunk! {^T hey fight. 

lago. Away, I say ! go out, and cry a mutiny. 

{Aside to Rod., %vho goes out. 

Nay, good lieutenant, — alas, gentlemen : — 

Help, ho! Lieutenant, — sir, — Montano, — sir; — 

Help, masters ! — Here's a goodly watch indeed ! 

{Bell rings. 
160 Who's that which rings the bell ? — Diablo, ho ! 
The town will rise : God's will, lieutenant, hold ! 
You will be shani'd for ever. 

Enter Othello a?td Attendants. 

0th. What is the matter here ? 

Mon. Zounds, I bleed still: I am hurt to the 
death. 

0th. Hold, for your lives ! 
lago. Hold, ho! Lieutenant, — sir,— Montano, 
— gentlemen, — 
Have you forgot all sense of place and duty } 
Hold ! the general speaks to you ; hold, hold, 
for shame ! 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 79 

0th. Why, how now, ho ! from whence ariseth 
this ? 
Are we turn'd Turks, and to ourselves do that 170 
Which heaven hath forbid the Ottomites? 
For Christian shame, put by this barbarous 

brawl : 
He that stirs next to carve for his own rage 
Holds his soul light ; he dies upon his motion, — 
Silence that dreadful bell ! it frights the isle 
From her propriety. — What is the matter, mas- 
ters } — 
Honest lago, that look'st dead with grieving, 
Speak, who began this .'* on thy love I charge 
thee. 
lago. I do not know : — friends all but now, 

even now, 180 

In quarter, and in terms ; and then, but now — 
As if some planet had unwitted men^ 
Swords out, and tilting oneat other's breast 
In opposition bloody. I cannot speak 
Any beginning to this peevish odds ; 
And would in action glorious I had lost 
Those legs that brought me to a part of it, 
0th. How comes it, Michael, you are thus for- 
got ? 
Cas. I pray you, pardon me ; I cannot speak. 
dth. Worthy Montano, you were wont be 
civil ; 19c 

The gravity and stillness of your youth 
The world hath noted, and your name is great 
In mouths of wisest censure: what's the matter 
That you unlace your reputation thus 
And spend your rich opinion for the name 



8o OTHELLO. [act ii. 

Of a night-brawler ? give me answer to it. 

'Mon. Worthy Othello, I am hurt to danger ; 
Your officer, lago, can inform you, — 
While I spare speecli, which something now 
offends me, — 

200 Of all that I do know : nor know I aught 
By me that's said or done amiss this night ; 
Unless self-charity be sometimes a vice, 
And to defend ourselves it be a sin 
When violence assails us. 

0th. Now, by heaven, 

My blood begins my safer guides to rule. 
And passion, having my best judgment callied, 
Assays to lead the way. If I once stir. 
Or do but lift this arm, the best of you 
Shall sink in my rebuke. Give me to know 

210 How this foul rout began, who set it on ; 
And he that is approv'd in this offence. 
Though he had twinn'd with me, both at a birth, 
Shall lose me. — What ! in a town of war. 
Yet wild, the people's heart brimful of fear. 
To manage privace and domestic quarrel. 
In night, and on the court and guard of safety !— 
'T is monstrous,— lago, wiio began 't } 

Mon. If, partially afifin'd, or leagu'd in office. 
Thou dost deliver more or less than truth. 
Thou art no soldier. 

220 lago. Touch me not so near : 

I had rather have this tongue cut from my mouth 
Tlian it should do offence to Michael Cassio ; 
Yet, I persuade myself, to speak the truth 
Shall nothing wrong him. —Thus it is, general ; 
Montano and myself being in speech, 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 8l 

There comes a fellow crying out for help, 

And Cassio following him with determin'd sword 

To execute upon him. Sir, this gentleman 

Steps in to Cassio and entreats his pause; 

Myself the crying fellow did pursue, 230 

Lest, by his clamor — as it so fell out — 

The town might fall in fright: he, swift of foot, 

Outran my purpose, and I returned the rather 

For that I heard the clink and fall of swords. 

And Cassio high in oath ; which, till to-night, 

I ne'er might say before. When I came back — 

For this was brief — I found them close together 

At blow and thrust, even as again they were 

When you yourself did part them. 

More of this matter cannot I report : — 240 

But men are men : the best sometimes forget. 

Though Cassio did some little wrong to him, — 

As men in rage strike those that wish them 

best, — 
Yet surely Cassio, I believe, receiv'd 
From him that fled some strange indignity. 
Which patience could not pass. 

0th. I know, lago. 

Thy honesty and love doth mince this matter, 
Making it light to Cassio, — Cassio, I love thee;. 
But never more be officer of mine. 

Enter Desuemona, attended. 

Look, if my gentle love be not rais'd up ! 250 

I'll make thee an example. 

Des. What is the matter, dear.^ 

0th. All's well now, sweeting; 

Come away to bed. — Sir, for your hurts, 



62 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

Myself will be your surgeon. Lead him ofif. 

[To MON., who is led off . 
lago, look with care about the town, 
And silence those whom this vile brawl dis- 
tracted. — 
Come, Desdemona; 't is the soldiers' life 
To have their balmy slumbers wak'd with strife. 
Exeunt all but Iago and Cas. 
lago. What, are you hurt, lieutenant } 
260 Cas. Ay, past all surgery. 

Iago. Marry, heaven forbid ! 
Cas. Reputation, reputation, reputation ! Oh, 
I have lost my reputation ! I have lost the im- 
mortal part of myself, and what remains is bes- 
tial. — My reputation, Iago, my reputation ! 

Iago. As 1 am an honest man, I thought you 
had received some bodily wound ; there is more 
sense in that than in reputation. Reputation is 
an idle and most false imposition; oft got with- 
270 out merit, and lost without deserving. You have 
lost no reputation at all, unless you repute your- 
self such a loser. What, man ! there are ways 
to recover the general again : you are but now 
cast in his mood, a punishment more in policy 
than in malice ; even so as one would beat his 
offenceless dog to affright an imperious lion : 
sue to him again, and he 's yours. 

Cas. I will rather sue to be despised than to 
deceive so good a commander with so slight, so 
280 drunken, and so indiscreet an officer. Drunk? 
and speak parrot } and squabble '} swagger } 
swear.? and discourse fustian with one's own 
shadow } — O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou 



SC. III.] OTHELLO. 83 

hast no name to be known by, let us call thee 
devil ! 

lago. What was he that you followed with 
your sword ? What had he done to you ? 

Cas. I know not. 

I ago. Is 't possible ? 

Cas. I remember a mass of things, but nothing 290 
distinctly : a quarrel, but nothing wherefore. — 
O God, that men should put an enemy in their 
mouths to steal away their brains ! that we 
should with joy, pleasance, revel, and applause, 
transform ourselves into beasts ! 

lago. Why, but you are now well enough : 
how came you thus recovered ? 

Cas. It hath pleased the devil Druukenness to 
give place to the devil Wrath : one unperfect- 
ness shows me another to make me frankly de» 
spise myself. 300 

lago. Come, you are too severe a moraler. As 
the time, the place, and the condition of this 
country stands, I could heartily wish this had not 
befallen ; but, since it is as it is, mend it for your 
own good. 

Cas. I will ask him for my place again ; he 
shall tell me I am a drunkard ! Had I as many 
mouths as Hydra, such an answer would stop 
them all. To be now a sensible man. by and by 
a fool, and presently a beast ! Oh, strange ! — 310 
Every inordinate cup is unbless'd, and the ingre- 
dient is a devil. 

lago. Come, come, good wine is a good famil- 
iar creature, if it be well used ; exclaim no more 



84 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

against it. And, good lieutenant, I think you 
think I love you. 

Cas. I iiave well approved it, sir. — I drunk ! 

lago. You or any man living may be drunk at 
some time, man. I'll tell you what you shall do. 
Our general's wife is now the general : I may 
320 say so in this respect, for that he hath devoted 
and given up himself to the contemplation, 
mark, and denotement of her parts and graces. 
Confess yourself freely to her; importune her 
help to put you in your place again : she is of so 
free, so kind, so apt, so blessed a disposition, she 
holds it a vice in her goodness not to do more 
than she is requested. This broken joint be- 
tween you and her husband entreat her to splin- 
ter ; and, my fortunes against any lay worth 
330 naming, this crack of your love shall grow 
stronger than it was before. 

Cas. You advise me well. 

lago. I protest, in the sincerity of love and 
honest kindness. 

Cas. I think it freely; and betimes in the 
morning 1 will beseech the virtuous Desdemona 
to undertake for me : I am desperate of my for- 
tunes if the)r check me here. 

lago. You are in the right. Good-night, lieu- 
340 tenant; I must to the watch. 

Cas. Good-night, honest lago. YExit Cassio. 

lago. And what's he then that says I play the 
villain } 
When this advice is free I give and honest, 
Probal to thinking, and indeed the course 
To win the Moor again ? For 't is most easy 



sc. III.] OTHELLO, 85 

Th' inclining Desdemona to subdue 
In any honest suit: she's fram'd as fruitful 
As the free elements. And then for her 
To win the Moor, — were't to renounce his bap- 
tism, 
All seals and symbols of redeemed sin, — 35c 

His soul is so enfetter'd to her love, 
That she may make, unmake, do what she list. 
Even as her appetite shall play the god 
With his weak function. How am I then a vil- 
lain 
To counsel Cassio to this parallel course, 
Directly to his good } Divinity of hell ! 
When devils will the blackest sins put on. 
They do suggest at first with heavenly shows, 
As I do now: for whiles this honest fool 
Plies Desdemona to repair his fortunes, 360 

And she for him pleads strongly to the Moor, 
I'll pour this pestilence into his ear, — 
That she repeals him for her body's lust; 
And, by how much she strives to do him good, 
She shall undo her credit with the Moor. 
So will I turn her virtue into pitch. 
And out of her own goodness make the net 
That shall enmesh them^ all. — How now, Rode- 
rigo } 

Enter RODERIGO. 

Rod. I do follow here in the chase, not like a 
hound that hunts, but one that fills up the cry. 370 
My money is almost spent ; I have been to-night 
exceedingly well cudgelled; and I think the is- 
sue will be, I shall have so much experience for 



86 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

my pains : and so, with no money at all, and a 

little more wit, return to Venice. 
I ago. How poor are they that have not pa- 
tience ! 

What wound did ever heal but by degrees? 

Thou know'st we work by wit and not by witch- 
craft ; 

And wit depends on dilatory time, 
380 Does't not go well ? Cassio hath beaten thee, 

And thou, by that small hurt, hast cashier'd 
Cassio. 

Though other things grow fair against the sun, 

Yet fruits that blossom first will first be ripe. 

Content thyself a while. — By th' mass, 't is 
morning ; 

Pleasure and action make the hours seem short. 

Retire thee ; go where thou art billeted : 

Away, I say; thou shalt know more hereafter: 

Nay, get thee gone. YExit Rod.] Two things 
are to be done, — 

My wife m.ust move for Cassio to her mistress, 

I '11 set her on ; 
390 Myself the while to draw the Moor apart. 

And bring him jump when he may Cassio find 

Soliciting his wife. — Ay, that's the way ; 

Dull not device by coldness and delay. {Exit, 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 87 



ACT III. 

Scene I. The same. Before the Castle, 

Enter Cassio, and some Musicians. 

Cas. Masters, play here; I will content your 
pains ; 
Something that's brief ; and bid " Good-morrow, 
general." [Ahtsic. 

Enter Clown. 

Clo. Why, masters,' have your instruments 
been in Naples that they speak i' the nose 
thus? 

First Mas. How, sir, how ! 

Clo. Are these, I pray you, wind-instruments? 

First Mus, Ay, marry, are they, sir. 10 

Clo. Oh, thereby hangs a tale. — But, masters, 
here's money for you ; and the general so likes 
your music that he desires you, for love's sake, 
to make no more noise with it. 

First Mus. Well, sir, we will not. 

Clo, If you have any music that may not be 
heard, to 't again : but, as they say, to hear 
music the general does not greatly care. 

First Mus. We have none such, sir. 

Clo. Then put up your pipes in your bag, for 
I '11 away. Go; vanish into air; away! 2C 

[Exeunt Musicians. 

Cas. Dost thou hear, my honest friend? 

Clo. No, I hear not your honest friend ; I hear 
you. 



S3 OTHELLO. [act iii. 

Cas. Prithee, keep up thy quillets. There's a 
poor piece of gold for thee : if the gentlewoman 
that attends the general's wife be stirring, tell 
her there's one Cassio entreats her a little favor 
of speech : wilt thou do this? 
30 Clo. She is stirring, sir; if she will stir hither, 
I shall seem to notify unto her. SJT.xit. 

Cas. Do, good my friend. 

Enter I ago. 

In happy time, lago. 
I ago. You have not been a-bed, then } 
Cas. Why, no ; the day had broke 
Before we parted. I've made bold, lago, 
To send in to your wife : my suit to her 
Is, that she will to virtuous Desdemona 
Procure me some access. 

lago. I'll send her to you presently; 

And I'll devise a mean to draw the Moor 
4c Out of the way that your converse and business 
May be more free. [Exit. 

Cas. I humbly thank you for 't. I never knew 
A Florentine more kind and honest. 
Enter Emilia. 
Emil. Good morrow, good lieutenant : I am 
sorry 
For your displeasure: but all will sure be well. 
The general and his wife are talking of it. 
And she speaks for you stoutly. The Moor re- 
plies 
That he you hurt is of great fame in C\ prus. 
And great affinity, and that in wholesome wis- 
dom 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 89 

He might not but refuse you ; but he protests 

he loves you 50 

And needs no other suitor but his hkings 
To take the saf'st occasion by the front 
To bring you in again. 

Cas. Yet, I beseech you, — 

If you think fit, or that it may be done, — 
Give me advantage of some brief discourse 
With Desdemona alone. 

Emil. Pray you, come in ; 

I will bestow you where you shall have time 
To speak your bosom freely. 

Cas. I am much bound to you. 

\Exeuiit. 

Scene II. A Room in the Castle. 
Enter Othello, Iago, <a:;z<r/ Gentlemen. 
0th. These letters give, Iago, to the pilot; 
And by him do my duties to the senate : 
That done, I will be walking on the works ; 
Repair there to me. 
Iago. Well, my good lord, I'll do't. 

0th. This fortification, gentleman, — shall we 

see 't } 
Gent. We'll wait upon your lordship. [Exeunt. 

Scene III. Before the Castle. 
Enter Desdemona, Cassio, and Emilia. 
Des. Be thou assur'd, good Cassio, I will do 
All my abilities in thy behalf. 
Emil. Good madam, do ; I warrant it grieves 
my husband 



90 OTHELLO. [act m. 

As if the case were his. 
Des. Oh, that's an honest fellow. — Do not 
doubt, Cassio, 
But I will have my lord and you again 
As friendly as you were. 

Cas. Bounteous madam. 

Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio, 
He 's never anything but your true servant. 
lo Des. I know 't ; — I thank you. You do love 
niy lord : 
You 've known him long; and be you well as- 

sur'd 
He shall .in strangeness stand no further olY 
Than in a politic distance. 

Cas. Ay, but, lady, 

That policy may either last so long 
Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet 
Or breed itself so out of circumstance 
That, I being absent and my place supplied. 
My general will forget my love and service. 
Des. Do not doubt that; before Emilia here 
20 I give thee warrant of thy place. Assure thee, 
If I do vow a friendship, I'll perform it 
To the last article : my lord shall never rest ; 
I'll watch him tame and talk him out of pa- 
tience; 
His bed shall seem a school, his board a shrift ; 
I'll intermingle every thing he does 
With Cassio's suit ; therefore be merry, Cassio, 
For thy solicitor shall rather die 
Than give thy cause away. 

Emil. Madam, here comes my lord. 
30 Cas. Madam, I'll take my leave. 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 91 

Des. Why, stay and hear me speak. 
Cas. Madam, not now ; I'm very ill at ease, 
Unfit for mine own purposes. 

Des. Well, do your discretion. {Exit Cassio. 

Eitter Othello and Iago at a distance. 

lago. Ha! I like not that. 

Oth. What dost thou say.'' 

Iago. Nothing, my lord ; or if — I know not 
what. 

Oth. Was not that Cassio parted from my 
wife } 

Iago. Cassio, my lord! No, sure, I cannot 
think it. 
That he would steal away so guilty-like. 
Seeing you coming. 

Oth. I do believe 't was he. 

Des. How now, my lord !4o 

I have been talking with a suitor here, 
A man that languishes in your displeasure. 

Oth. Who is't you mean } 

Des. Why, your lieutenant, Cassio. Good my 
lord. 
If I have any grace or power to move you, 
His present reconciliation take ; 
For if he be not one that truly loves you, 
That errs in ignorance and not in cunning, 
I have no judgment in an honest face. 50 

I prithee, call him back. 

Oth. Went he hence now } 

Des. Ay, sooth ; so humbled 
That he hath left part of his grief with me. 
To suffer with him. Good love, call him back. 



92 OTHELLO. [act hi. 

0th. Not now, sweet Desdemona; some other 

time. 
Des. But shall 't be shortly ? 
0th. The sooner, sweet, for you. 

Des. Shall 't be to-night at supper ? 
0th. No, not to-night. 

Des. To-morrow dinner, then ? 
0th. I shall not dine at home ; 

I meet the captains at the citadel. 

Des. Why, then, to-morrow night, or Tuesday 
morn ; 
6o On Tuesday noon, or night; on Wednesday 
morn ; — 
I prithee, name the time ; but let it not 
Exceed three days: in faith, he's penitent; 
And yet his trespass, in our common reason, — 
Save that, they say, the wars must make ex- 
amples 
Out of their best, — is not almost a fault 
T' incur a private check. When shall become.? 
Tell me, Othello : 1 wonder in my soul 
What you would ask me that I should deny 
70 Or stand so mammering so. What! Michael 
Cassio, 
That came a-wooing with you, and so many a 

time. 
When I have spoke of you dispraisingly. 
Hath ta'en your part ; to have so much to do 
To bring him in ! Trust me, I could do much, — 
0th. Prithee, no more : let him come when 
he will ; 
I v.'ill deny thee nothing. 

Des. Why, this is not a boon ;. 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 93 

'T is as I should entreat you wear your gloves 

Or feed on nourishing dishes or keep you warm 

Or sue to you to do a peculiar profit 

To your own person : nay, when I have a suit 80 

Wherein I mean to touch your love indeed, 

It shall be full of poise and difficult weight 

And fearful to be granted. 

0th. I will deny thee nothing: 

Whereon, I do beseech thee, grant me this. 
To leave me but a little to myself. 

Des. Shall I deny you ? no : farewell, my lord. 
0th. Farewell, my Desdemona: I'll come to 

thee straight. 
Des. Emilia, come. Be as your fancies teach 
you ; 
Whate'er you be, I am obedient. 

\Exzt with Emilia. 
0th. Excellent wretch ! Perdition catch my 
soul, 90 

But I do love thee ! and, when I love thee not, 
Chaos is come again. 
lago. My noble lord, — 

0th. What dost thou say, lago ? 

lago. Did Michael Cassio, when you woo'd 
my lady. 
Know of your love ? 

0th. He did, from first to last : why dost thou 

ask ? 
lago. But for a satisfaction of my thought ; 
No further harm. 

0th. Why of thy thought, lago ? 

lago. I did not think he 'd been acquainted 
with her. 



94 OTHELLO. [act iii. 

roo Oth. Oh, yes ; and went between us very oft. 
I ago. Indeed ! 

Oth. " Indeed ! " ay, indeed ; — discern 'st thou 
aught in that? 
Is he not honest ? 

lago. Honest, my lord ? 

Oth. " Honest! " ay, honest. 

lago. My lord, for aught I know. 
Oth. What dost thou think ? 
lago. Think, my lord ? 

Oth. " Think, my lord ! " By heaven, he 
echoes me. 
As if there were some monster in his thought 
Too hideous to be shown !— Thou dost mean 

something, 
I heard thee say even now thou lik'dst not that, 
I lo When Cassio left miy wife : what didst not like } 
And, when I told thee he was of my counsel 
In my whole course of wooing, thou criedst 

" Indeed!" 
And didst contract and purse thy brow together, 
As if thou then hadst, shut up in thy brain, 
Some horrible conceit. If thou dost love me. 
Show me thy thought. 

lago. My lord, you know I love you. 
Oth. I think thou dost; 

And, for I know thou'rt full of love and honesty, 
And weigh 'st thy words before thou giv'st them 
breath, 
1 20 Therefore tiiese stops of thine fright me the 
more : 
For such things in a false, disloyal knave 
Are tricks of custom ; but in a man that's just 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 95 

They're close delations, working from the heart 
That passion cannot rule. 

I ago. For Michael Cassio, 

I dare be sworn I think that he is honest. 
OtJi. I think so too. 

lago. Men should be what they seem ; 

Or those that be not, would they might seem 
none I 
Oth. Certain, men should be what they seem. 
lago. Why, then I think Cassio's an honest 

man, 
Oth. Nay, yet there's more in this : 130 

I prithee, speak to me as to thy thinkings, 
As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of 

thoughts 
The worst of words. 

lago. Good my lord, pardon me : 

Though I am bound to every act of duty, 
I am not bound to that all slaves are free to. 
Utter my thoughts ? Why, say they 're vile and 

false, — 
As where's that palace whereinto foul things 
Sometimes intrude not.^ Who has abreast so 

pure 
But some uncleanly apprehensions 
Keep leets and law-days, and in session sit 140 

With meditations lawful.? 

Oth. Thou dost conspire against thy friend, 
lago, 
If thou but think'st him wrong'd, and mak'st his 

ear 
A stranger to thy thoughts. 
lago. I do beseech you, — 



96 OTHELLO, [act iii. 

Though I perchance am vicious in my guess. 
As I confess it is my nature's plague 
To spy into abuses, and oft my jealousy 
Shapes faults that are not — that your wisdom 

yet, 
From one that so imperfectly conceits, 
Would take no notice, nor build yourself a 
150 trouble 

Out of his scattering and unsure observ^ance. 
It were not for your quiet nor your good, 
Nor for my manhood, honesty, and wisdom. 
To let you know my thoughts. 

0th. What dost thou mean ? 

I ago. Good name in man and woman, dear 
my lord, 
Is the immediate jewel of their souls. 
Who steals my purse steals trash : 't is some- 
thing, nothing; 
'T Was mine, 't is his, and has been slave to 

thousands ; 
But he that filches from me my good name 
160 Robs me of that which not enriches him 
And makes me poor indeed. 

0th. By heaven, I'll know thy thoughts! 
lago. You cannot, if my heart were in your 
hand ; 
Nor shall not, whilst 't is in my custody. 
0th. Ha! 

lago. Oh, beware, my lord, of jealousy ; 
It is the green-eyed monster which doth make 
The meat it feeds ortr that cuckold lives in bliss 
Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger ; 
But, oh, what damned minutes tells he o'er 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 97 

Who dotes, yet doubts ; suspects, yet strongly 

loves! 170 

0th. O, misery ! 
lago. Poor and content is rich and rich 

enough ; 
But riches fineless is as poor as winter 
To him that ever fears he shall be poor. 
Good heaven, the souls of all my tribe defend 
From jealousy ! 

0th. Why, why is xSxvs,} 

Think'st thou I'd make a life of jealousy. 
To follow still the changes of the moon 
With fresh suspicions ? No : to be once in doubt 
Is once to be resolv'd. Exchange me for a goat, 180 
When I shall turn the business of my soul 
To such exsufiiicate and blown surmises. 
Matching thy inference. 'T is not to make me 

jealous 
To say my wife is fair, feeds well, loves compan}^ 
Is free of speech, sings, plays, and dances well ; 
Where virtue is, these are more virtuous : 
Nor from mine own weak merits will I draw 
The smallest fear or doubt of her revolt ; 
For she had eyes, and chose me. No, lago ; 
I'll see before I doubt ; when. I doubt, prove ; 
And, on the proof, there is no more but this — 190 
Away at once with love or jealousy ! 

lago. I 'm glad of this ; for now I shall have 

reason 
To show the love and duty that I bear you 
With franker spirit : therefore, as I am bound, 
Receive it from me. I speak not yet of proof. 
Look to your wife ; observe her well with Cassio ; 



98 OTHELLO. [act in. 

Wear yowx eye thus, not jealous nor secure : 
I would not have your free and noble nature, 
200 Out of self-bounty, be abused ; look to 't : 
I know our country disposition well : 
In Venice they do let heaven see the pranks 
They dare not show their husbands; their best 

conscience 
Is not to leave 't undone, but keep 't unknown. 
0th. Dost thou say so } 

lago. She did deceive her father, marrying 
you : 
And, when she seem'd to shake and fear your 

looks, 
She lov'd them most. 

0th. And so she did. 

lago. Why, go to, then ; 

She that, so young, could give out such a seem- 
ing, 
210 To seel her father's eyes up close as oak, — 

He thought 't was witchcraft. But I 'm much 

to blame ; 
I humbly do beseech you of yout pardon 
For too much loving you. 

Oth. 1 'm bound to thee forever. 

lago. I see this hath a little dash'd your spirits. 
Oth. Not a jot, not a jot. 

lago. V faith, I fear it has. 

I hope you will consider what is spoke 
Comes from my love. But I do see you're 

mov'd : 
I am to pray you not to strain my speech 
To grosser issues nor to larger reach 
220 Than to suspicion. 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 99 

Oth. I will not. 

I ago. Should you do so, my lord, 

My speech should fall into such vile success 
As my thoughts aim not at. Cassio's my worthy 

friend :— 
My lord, I see you're mov'd. 

Oth. No, not much mov'd : — 

I do not think but Desdemona's honest. 

lago. Long live she so ! and long live you to 
think so ! 

Oth. And yet, how nature erring from itself, — 

lago. Ay, there's the point ; as — to be bold 
with you, — 
Not to affect many proposed matches 
Of her own clime, complexion, and degree, 230 

Whereto we see in all things nature tends — 
Foh ! one may smell, in such, a will most rank, 
Foul disproportions, thoughts unnatural. 
But pardon me ; I do not in position 
Distinctly speak of her ; though I may fear 
Her will, recoiling to her better judgment, 
May fall to match you with her country forms 
And happily repent. 

Oth. Farewell, farewell. 

If more thou dost perceive, let me know more ; 
Set on thy wife t' observe. — Leave me, lago, 240 

lago. My lord, I take my leave. {Going. 

Oth. Why did I marry.? — This honest creature 
doubtless 
Sees and knows more, much more, than he unfolds. 

lago. {Returning .'\ My lord I would I might 
entreat your honor 
To scan this thing no further ; leave it to time : 



100 OTHELLO. [act iii. 

Although 't is fit that Cassio have his place, — 
For sure he fills it up with great ability, — 
Yet, if you please to hold him off awhile, 
You shall by that perceive him and his means. 

250 Note if your lady strain his entertainment 
With any strong or vehement importunity; 
Much will be seen in that. In the mean time 
Let me be thought too busy in my fears, — 
As worthy cause I have to fear I am, — 
And hold her free, I do beseech your honor. 
0th. Fear not my government. 
lago. I once more take my leave. [Exit. 

0th. This fellow 's of exceeding honesty. 
And knows all qualities, with a learned spirit, 

260 Of human dealings. If I do prove her haggard, 
Though that her jesses were my dear heart- 
strings, 
I'd whistle her off, and let her down the wind 
To prey at fortune. Haply, for I am black 
And have not those soft parts of conversation 
That chamberers have; or, for I am declin'd 
Into the vale of years, — yet that's not much; — 
She's gone; I am abus'd ; and my relief 
Must be to loathe her. Oh, curse of marriage. 
That we can call these delicate creatures ours, 

270 And not their appetites ! I'd rather be a toad 
And live upon the vapor of a dungeon 
Than keep a corner in the thing I love 
For others' uses. Yet, 't is the plague of great 

ones ; 
Prerogativ'd are they less than the base ; 
'T is destiny unshunnable, like death ; 
Even then this forked plague is fated to us 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. loi 

When we do quicken. Desderaona comes. 
If she be false, oh, then heaven mock itself! 
I'll not believe 't. 

Enter Desdemona and Emilia. 

Des. How now, my dear Othello ! 

Your dinner, and the generous islanders 280 

By you invited, do attend your presence. 

0th. I am to blame. 

Des. Why do you speak so faintly.^ 

Are you not well ? 

0th. I have a pain upon my forehead here. 

Des. Faith, that 's with watching ; 't will away 
again : 
Let me bind it hard, within this hour 
It will be well . 

0th. Your napkin is too little ; 

\He puts the handkerchief from him; and it drops. 
Let it alone. Come, I'll go in with you. 

Des. I 'm very sorry that you are not well. 

[Exeimt Oth. and Des. 

Emil. I am glad I have found this napkin : 290 
This was her first remembrance from the Moor: 
My wayward husband hath a hundred times 
Woo'd me to steal it ; but she so loves the token, 
For he conjur'd her she should ever keep it, 
That she reserves it ever more about her 
To kiss and talk to. 

I '11 have the work ta'en out, and give 't lago ; 
What he will do with it, heaven knows, not I ; 
I nothing but to please his fantasy. 



102 OTHELLO. [act III. 

Enter Iago. 

300 Iago. How now ! what do you do here alone ? 

Emil. Do not you chide ; I have a thing for 
you. 

Iago. A thing for me? it is a common thing — 

Eniil. Ha ! 

Iago. To have a foolish wife. 

Ejnil. Oh, is that all ? — What will you give 
me now 
For that same handkerchief? 

Iago. What handkerchief ? 

Emil. "What handkerchief?" 
Why, that the Moor first gave to Desdemona ; 
That which so often you did bid me steal, 
310 Iago. Hast stol'n it from her? 

Emil. No, faith ; she let it drop by negligence, 
And, to th' advantage, I, being here, took 't up. 
Look, here it is. 

Iago. A good wench ; give it me. 

Emil. What will you do with 't that you 've 
been so earnest 
To have me filch it ? 

Iago. ^Snatching it.] Why, what 's that to you? 

Emil. If 't be not for some purpose of import, 
Give 't me again ; poor lady ! she '11 run mad 
When she shall lack it. 

Iago. Be not acknown on 't ; I have use for it. 
320 Go, leave me. [Exit Emilia. 

I will in Cassio's lodging lose this napkin 
And let him find it. Trifles light as air 
Are to the jealous confirmation strong 
As proofs of holy writ : this may do something. 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 103 

The Moor already changes with my poison : 
Dangerous conceits are in their natures poisons. 
Which at the first are scarce found to distaste, 
But, with a little act upon the blood. 
Burn like the mines of sulphur. — I did say so; — 
Look, where he comes ! Not poppy nor mandra- 

gora 330 

Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world 
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep 
Which thou ow'dst yesterday. 

Re-enter Othello. 

0th. Ha! ha! false to me? 

lago. Why, how. now, general ! no more of 
that. ' 

0th. Avaunt ! begone ! thou 'st set me on the 
rack : — 
I swear 't is better to be much abus'd 
Than but to know 't a little. 

lago. How now, my lord ! 

. 0th. What sense had I of her stol'n hours of 

lust } 
I saw 't not, thought it not, it harmd not me : 
I slept the next night well, was free and merry ; 340 
I found not Cassio's kisses on her lips : 
He that is robb'd, not wanting what is stol'n. 
Let him not know 't, and he 's not robb'd at all. 

lago. I 'm sorry to hear this. 

0th. I had been happy. 

So I had nothing known. Oh, now, for ever 
Farewell the tranquil mind I farewell content ! 
Farewell the plumed troop, and the big wars, 
That make ambition virtue.^ Oh, farewell ! 350 



104 OTHELLO. [act in. 

Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill 

trump, 
The spirit-stirring drum, th' ear-piercing fife, 
The royal banner, and all quality, 
Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war! 
And, O you mortal engines, whose rude throats 
The immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit, 
Farewell! Othello's occupation 's gone! 
lago. Is 't possible, my lord ? 
0th. Villain, be sure thou prove my love a 
trull, 
360 Be sure of it; give me the ocular proof: 

[Taking him by the throat. 
Or, by the worth of man's eternal soul. 
Thou hadst been better have been born a dog 
Than answer my wak'd wrath ! 

lago. Is't come to this? 

0th. Make me to see 't ; or, at the least, so 
prove it 
That the probation bear no hinge nor loop 
To hang a doubt on, or woe upon thy life ! 
lago. My noble lord, — 

0th. If thou dost slander her and torture me, 
Never pray more ; abandon all remorse ; 
370 On horror's head horrors accumulate ; 

Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amaz'd ; 
For nothing canst thou to damnation add 
Greater than that! 

lago. O grace ! O heaven forgive me ! 

Are you a man ? have you a soul or sense ? — 
God be wi' you ; take mine office. — O wretched 

fool 
That liv'st to make thine honesty a vice ! 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 105 

monstrous world ! Take note, take note, O 

world. 
To be direct and honest is not safe. 

1 thank you for this profit ; and from hence 

I'll love no friend, sith love breeds such ofit'ence. 380 

0th. Nay, stay ; thou shouldst be honest. 

lago. I should be wise, for honesty's a fool 
And loses that it works for. 

0th. By the world, 

I think my wife be honest, and think she 's not ; 
I think that thou art just, and think thou 'rt 

not! 
I'll have some proof; her name, that was as 

fresh 
As Dian's visage, is now begrim'd and black 
As mine own face.— If there be cords, or knives. 
Poison, or fire, or suffocating streams, 
I'll not endure it. — Would 1 were satisfied ! 390 

lago. I see, sir, you are eaten up with passion : 
I do repent me that I put it to you. 
You would be satisfied } 

0th. Would ! nay, I will. 

lago. And may : but how .^ how satisfied, my 
lord } 
If imputation and strong circumstances, — 
Which lead directly to the door of truth, — 
Will-give you satisfaction, you may have 't. 

0th. Give me a living reason she's disloyal. 

lago. I do not like the office : 400 

But, sith I'm enter'd in this cause so far, 
Prick'd to 't by foolish honesty and love, 
I will go on. I lay with Cassio lately ; 
And, being troubled with a raging tooth, 



io6 OTHELLO. [act iii. 

I could not sleep. 

There are a kind of men so loose of soul 
That in their sleeps will mutter their affairs ; 
One of this kind is Cassio ; 
In sleep I heard him say, "Sweet Desdemona, 
410 Let us be wary, let us hide our loves." 

And then, sir, would he gripe and wring my 

hand, 
Cry, " O sweet creature ! " and then kiss me hard, 
As if he pluck'd up kisses by the roots 
That grew upon my lips; and sigh'd, and then 
Cried, "Cursed fate that gave thee to the 
Moor!" 
OtJi. Oh, monstrous ! monstrous ! 
lago. Nay, this was but his dream. 

0th. But this denoted a foregone conclusion ; 
'T is a shrewd doubt, though it be but a dream. 
lago. And this may help to thicken other 
420 proofs 

That do demonstrate thinly. 

0th. I'll tear her all to pieces. 

lago. Nay, but be wise; yet we see nothing 
done ; 
She may be honest yet. Tell me but this, — 
Have you not sometimes seen a handkerchief 
Spotted with strawberries in your wife's hand? 
0th. I gave her such a one ; 't was my. first 

gift. 
lago. I know not that; but such a handker- 
chief — 
I 'm sure it was your wife's — did I to-day 
See Cassio wipe his beard with. 

0th. If it be that,— 



sc. III.] OTHELLO, 107 

lago. If it be that, or any that was hers, 430 

It speaks against her with the other proofs. 

0th. Oh, that the slave had forty thousand 
lives ! 
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge. 
Now do I see 't is true. Look here, lago ; 
All my fond love thus do I blow to heaven. 
'T is gone ! — 

Arise, black vengeance, from the hollow hell ! 
Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne 
To tyrannous hate ! Swell, bosom, with thy 

fraught,. 
For 't is of aspics' tongues ! 

lago. Yet be content. 440 

0th. Oh, blood, blood, blood ! 

lago. Patience, I say ; your mind perhaps may 
change. 

0th. Never, lago. Like to the Pontic sea, 
Whose icy current and compulsive course 
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on 
To the Propontic and the Hellespont, 
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace. 
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love, 
Till that a capable and wide revenge 
Swallow them up. — Now, by yond marble heaven, 45c 
In the due reverence of a sacred vow [Kneels. 
I here engage my words. 

lago. Do not rise yet. — {Kneels, 

Witness, you ever-burning lights above. 
You elements that qjiip us round about, 
Witness that here lago doth give up 
The execution of his wit, hands, heart, 



io8 OTHELLO. [act iii. 

To wrong'd Othello's service ! Let. him com- 
mand, 
And to obey shall be in me remorse, 
What bloody business ever ! 

0th. I greet thy love, 

Not with vain thanks, but with acceptance 
bounteous, 
460 And will upon the instant put thee to 't : 

Within these three days let me hear thee say 
That Cassio's not alive. 

lago. My friend is dead : 't is done at your 
request ; 
But let her live. 

0th. Damn her, lewd minx ! oh, damn her ! 
Come, go with me apart ; I will withdraw 
To furnish me with some swift means of death 
For the fair devil. Now art thou my lieutenant. 
lago. I am your own for ever. {^Exeunt. 

Scene IV. Before the Castle. 
Enter Desdemona, Emilia, a7id Clown. 

Des. Do you know, sirrah, where lieutenant 

Cassio lies ? 
Clo. I dare not say he lies anywhere. 
Des. Why, mafi ? 

Clo. He is a soldier; and for one to say a sol- 
dier lies is stabbing. 

Des. Go to ; where lodges J;ie ? 

Clo. To tell you where he lodges is to tell you 

where I lie. 
10 Des. Can anything be made of this.? 



sc. IV.] OTHELLO. 109 

CIo, I know not where he lodges : and for me 
to devise a lodging and say he lies here or he 
lies there were to lie in mine own throat. 

Des. Can you inquire him out and be edified 
by report ? 

Clo. I will catechise the world for him ; that 
is, make questions, and by them answer. 

Des. Seek him, bid him come hither; tell him 
I have moved my lord on his behalf, and hope 
all will be well. 20 

Clo. To do this is within the compass of man's 
wit ; and therefore I will attempt the doing it. 

{^E.xit. 

Des. Where should I lose that handkerchief, 
Emilia? 

Emil. I know not, madam. 

Des. Believe me, I had rather have lost my 
purse 
Full of crusadoes : and, but my noble Moor 
Is true of mind and made of no such baseness 
As jealous creatures are, it were enougli 
To put him to ill thinking. 

Ejnil. Is he not jealous ? 

Des. Who, he ? I think the sun where he was 
born 30 

Drew all such humors from him. 

Emil. Look, where he comes. 

Des. I will not leave him now till Cassio 
Be call'd to him. 

E7iter Othello. 

How is 't with you, my lord ? 



no OTHELLO. [act iii. 

0th. Well, my good lady.— [.4^z'^<?.] Oh, hard- 
ness to dissemble ! — 
How do you, Desdemona ? 

Des. Well, my good lord. 

0th. Give me your hand : this hand is moist, 

my lady. 
Des. It yet has felt no age nor known no sor- 
row. 
0th. This argues fruitfulness and liberal 
heart : — 
Hot, hot, and moist : this hand of yours requires 
40 A sequester from liberty, fasting and prayer. 
Much castigation, exercise devout ; 
For here's a young and sweating devil here 
That commonly rebels. 'T is a good hand, 
A frank one. 

Des. You may indeed say so ; 

For 't was that hand that gave away my heart. 
0th. A liberal hand : the hearts of old gave 
hands ; 
But our new heraldry is hands, not hearts. 
Des. I cannot speak of this. Come now, your 

promise. 
0th. What promise, chuck ? 
Des. Fve sent to bid Cassio come speak with 
50 you. 

0th. I have a salt and sorry rheum offends me; 
Lend me thy handkerchief. 

Des. Here, my lord. . 

0th. That which I gave you. 

Des. I have it not about me. 

Oth. Not? 

Des. No, indeed, my lord. 



sc. IV.] OTHELLO, iii 

0th. That is a fault. 

That handkerchief 
Did an Egyptian to my mother give ; 
She was a charmer, and could almost read 
The thoughts of people : she told her, while she 

kept it 
'T would make her amiable and subdue my 

father 
Entirely to her love ; but,v if she lost it 60 

Or made a gift of it, my father's eye 
Should hold her loathed, and his spirits should 

hunt 
After new fancies. She, dying, gave it me ; 
And bid me, when my fate would have me wive. 
To give it her. I did so : and take heed on 't ; 
Make it a darling like your precious eye ; 
To lose 't or give 't away were such perdition 
As nothing else could match. 

Des. Is 't possible ? 

0th. 'T is true : there's magic in the web of it. 
A sibyl, that had number'd in the world 70 

The sun to course two hundred compasses. 
In her prophetic fury sew'd the work ; 
The worms were hallow'd that did breed the 

silk; 
And it was dyed in mummy which the skilful 
Conserved of maidens' hearts. 

Des. Indeed! is 't true .^ 

Oth. Most veritable ; therefore look to 't well. 

Des. Then would to God that I had never 
seen 't i 

Oth. Ha ! wherefore ? 

Des. Why do you speak so startingly and rash } 



112 OTHELLO. [act III. 

80 0th. Is 't lost ? is 't gone ? speak, is 't out of the 
way ? 

Des. Heaven bless us ! 

Oth. Say you ? 

Des, It is not lost ; but what an if it were ? ^ 

Oth. How? 

Des. I say it is not lost. 

Oth. Fetch 't, and let me see 't. 

Des. Why, so I can, sir, but I will not now. 
This is a trick to put me from my suit : 
Pray you, let Cassio be receiv'd again. 

Oth. Fetch me the handkerchief: my mind 
misgives. 
90 Des. Come, come ; 

You'll never meet a more sufficient man. 

Oth. The handkerchief ! 

Des. I pray, talk me of Cassio. 

Oth. The handkerchief ! 

Des. A man that all his time 

Hath founded his good fortunes on your love, 
Shar'd dangers with you, — 

Oth. The handkerchief ! 

Des. In sooth, you are to blame. 

Oth. Away! {Exit, 

Ejnil. Is not this man jealous } 
[Qo Des. I ne'er saw this before. 

Sure, there's some wonder in this handkerchief; 
I'm most unhappy in the loss of it. 

EniiL 'T is not a year or two shows us a man : 
They are all but stomachs, and we all but food ; 
They eat us hungerly, and, when they are full. 
They belch us. — Look you, Cassio and my hus- 
band. 



SC. IV.] OTHELLO. 113 



Enter IagO and Cassio. 

lago. There is no other way : 't is she must 
do 't : 
And, lo, the happiness! go and importune her. 

Des. How now, good Cassio } what's the news 
with you ? 

Cas. Mada.m, my former suit : I do beseech 
you 1 10 

That by your virtuous means I may again 
Exist, and be a member of his love 
Whom I with all the office of my heart 
Entirely honor. I would not be delay 'd. 
If my offence be of such mortal kind 
That nor my service past nor present sorrows 
Nor purpos'd merit in futurity 
Can ransom me into his love again, 
But to know so must be my benefit ; 
So shall I clothe me in a forc'd content, 120 

And shut myself up in some other course 
To fortune's alms. 

Des. Alas, thrice-gentle Cassio ! 

My advocation is not now in tune ; 
My lord is not my lord ; nor should I know him 
Were he in favor as in humor alter'd, 
So help me every spirit sanctified, 
As I have spoken for you all my best i 

And stood within the blank of his displeasure 
For my free speech ! You must awhile be pa- 
tient: 
What I can do I will ; and more I will 130^ 

Than for myself I dare : let that suffice you. 

IagO. Is my lord angry } 



114 . OTHELLO. [act iil 

EmiL He went hence but now, 

And certainly in strange unquietness. 

lago. Can he be angry ? I have seen the 
cannon 
When it hath blown his ranks into the air, 
And, like the devil, from his very arm 
Puff'd his own brother ;— and can he be angry ? 
Something of moment then : I will go meet him ; 
There 's matter in 't indeed if he be angry. 

Des, I prithee, do so.— [£"-r// I AGO.] Something 
140 sure of state, — 

Either from Venice, or some unhatch'd practice 
Made demonstrable here in Cyprus to him, — 
Hath puddled his clear spirit ; and in such cases 
Men's natures wrangle with inferior things, 
Though great ones are their object. 'T is even 

so; 
For let our finger ache, and it indues 
Our other healthful members even to that sense 
Of pain. Nay, we must think men are not gods, 
Nor of them look for such observancy 
150 As fits the bridal. — Beshrew me much, Emilia, 
I was — unhandsome warrior as I am — 
Arraigning his unkindness with my soul ; 
But now I find I had suborn 'd the witness. 
And he 's indicted falsely. 

EmiL Pray heaven it be state- matters, as you 
think, 
And no conception nor no jealous toy 
Concerning you. 

Des. Alas, the day ! [ never gave him cause. 

Einil. But jealous souls will not be answer'd 
so ; 



sc. iv.J OTHELLO. 115 

They are not ever jealous for the cause, 160 

But jealous for they're jealous : 't is a monster 
Begot upon itself, born on itself. 
Des. Heaven keep that monster from Othello's 

mind ! 
Emil. Lady, amen ! 

Des. I will go seek him. — Cassio, walk here- 
about : 
If I do find him fit, I'll move your suit 
And seek t' effect it to my uttermost. 
Cas. I humbly thank your ladyship. 

{Exeunt Desdemona and Emilia. 

Enter BiANCA. 

Bian. Save you, friend Cassio ! 
Cas. What make you from home ? 

How is it with you, my most fair Bianca 1 170 

r faith, sweet love, I was coming to your bouse. 
Bian. And I was going to your lodging, 
Cassio. 
What ! keep a week away ? seven days and 

nights ? 
Eight score eight hours? and lovers' absent 

hours, 
More tedious than the dial eight score times ? 
Oh, weary reckoning ! 

Cas. Pardon me Bianca ; 

I have this while with 

press'd : 
But I shall in a more continuate time 
Strike off this score of absence. Sweet Bianca, 
\Gi7'ing her Desdemona's handkerchief. 
Take me this work out. 



ii6 OTHELLO. [act iil 

1 80 Btan. O Cassio, whence came this ? 

This is some token from a newer friend ; 
To the felt absence now I feel a cause. 
Is 't come to this ? Well, well. 

Cas. Go to, woman ! 

Throw your vile guesses in the devil's teeth, 
From whence you have them. You are jealous 

now 
That this is from some mistress, some remem- 
brance : 
No, in good troth, Bianca. 

Bian. Why, whose is it ? 

Cas. I know not sweet ; I found it in my 
chamber. 
I like the work well : ere it be demanded — 
190 As like enough it will — I'd have it copied : 
Take it and do't ; and leave me for this time. 
Bian. Leave you ! wherefore ? 
Cas. I do attend here on the general ; 
AriL v,hink it no addition, nor my wish. 
To have him see me woman'd, 

Bian. Why, I pray you ? 

Cas. Not that I love you not. 
Bian. But that you do not love me. 

I pray you, bring me on the way a little ; 
And say if I shall see you soon at night, 

Cas. 'T is but a little way that I can bring you, 
200 For I attend here : but I'll see you soon. 

Bian. 'T is very good, I must be circum- 
stanc'd. [Exeunt. 



sc. I.] OTHELLO, 117 



ACT IV. 
Scene I. The same. Before the Castle. . 
Enter Othello and Iago. 

lago. Will you think so ? 

0th. " Think so," Iago ! 

Iago. What, 

To kiss in private ? 

0th. An unauthoriz'd kiss ? 

Iago. Not meaning any harm ? 

0th. Not mean harm ! 
It is hypocrisy against the devil : 
They that mean virtuously, and yet do so. 
The devil their virtue tempts, and they tempt 
heaven, 

Iago. If they do nothing, 't is a venial slip : 
But if I give my wife a handkerchief, — 10 

0th. What then? 

Iago. W^hy then 't is hers, my lord; and, being 
hers. 
She may, I think, bestow 't on any man. 

0th. She is protectress of her honor too; 
May she give that ? 

Iago. Her honor is an essence that's not seen ; 
They have it very oft that have it not: 
But, for the handkerchief, — 

0th. By heaven, I would most gladly have for- 
got it. 
Thou saidst, — oh, it comes o'er my memory 20 

As doth the raven o'er the infectious house, 



1 1 8 O THEL L O. [act iv. 

Boding to all ! — he had my handkerchief. 
lago. Ay, what of that ? 

Otk. That's not so good now. What 

lago. If I 'd said I 'd seen him do you 
wrong } 
Or heard him say, — as knaves be such abroad, 
Who having by their own importunate suit, 
Or voluntary dotage of some mistress. 
Convinced, or supplied them, cannot choose 
But they must blab, — 

0th. Hath he said anything? 

30 lago. He hath, my lord ; but, be you well as- 
sur'd. 
No more than he'll unswear. 

Otk. What hath he said ? 

lago. Faith, that he did, — I know not what he 

did. 
Otk. What? what? — Handkerchief, — confes- 
sions, — handkerchief! — To confess, and be hanged 
for his labor. — First, to be hanged, and then to 
confess, — I tremble at it. Nature would not in- 
vest herself in such shadowing passion without 
40 some instruction. It is not words that shake 
me thus. Pish ! — Noses, ears, and lips.— Is't 
possible ? — Confess ! — Handkerchief! — O devil ! 

\^FaUs in a tra^tci:. 
lago. Work on, 
My medicine, work ! Thus credulous fools are 

caught : 
And many worthy and chaste dames even thus, 
All guiltless, meet reproach. — What, ho ! my 

lord ! 
My lord, I say ! Othello ! 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 119 

Enter Cassio. 

How now, Cassio ? 

Cas. What is the matter ? cq 

lago. My lord is fall'n into an epilepsy ; 
This is his second fit ; he had one yesterda}^ 

Cas. Rub him about the temples, 

lago. No, forbear : 

The lethargy must have his quiet course; 
If not, he foams at mouth and by and by 
Breaks out to savage madness. Look, he stirs: 
Do you withdraw yourself a little while, 
He will recover straight : when he is gone, 
I would on great occasion speak with you. 

{^Exit CassiOo 
How is it, general ? have you not hurt your 

head ? ' 6c 

0th. Dost thou mock me.^ 

lago. I mock you ! no, by heaven 

Would you would bear your fortune like a man 

0th. A horned man 's a monster and a beast. 

lago. There's many a beast then in a popu- 
lous city, 
And many a civil monster. 

0th. Did he confess it.^ 

lago. Good sir, be a man ; 

Think every bearded fellow that 's butyok'd 
May draw with you. 

0th. Oh, thou art wise ; 't is certain. 

lago. Stand you awhile apart ; 

Confine yourself but in a patient list. 
Whilst you were here, o'erwkelmed with your 

grief,— 70 



I20 OTHELLO. [act IV. 

^ A passion most unsuiting such a manr— 

Cassio came hither : I shifted him away, 

And laid good 'sense upon your ecstasy ; 

Bade him anon return and here speak with me ; 

The which he promis'd. Do but encave your- 
self. 

And mark the fleers, the gibes, and notable 
scorns 

That dwell in ev^ry -region of his face ; 

For I will make him tell the tale anew ; 

I say, but mark his gesture. Marry, patience ; 
So Or I shall say you 're all in all in spleen. 

And nothing of a man. 

0th. Dost thou hear, lago ? 

I will be found most cunning in my patience ; 

But — dost thou hear ? — most bloody. 

lago. That's not amiss ; 

But yet keep time in all. Will you withdraw ? 

[Othello r^//r^jr. 

Now will I question Cassio of Bianca, 

A housewife that by selling her desires 

Buys herself bread and clothes : it is a creature 

That dotes on Cassio: 

He, when he hears of her, cannot refrain 
90 From the excess of laughter — here he comes : — 

Re-enter Cassio. 

As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad; 

And his unbookish jealousy must construe 

Poor Cassio's smiles, gestures, and light behav- 
ior 

Quite in the wrong. — How do you now, lieuten- 
ant.^ 



sc. l] OTHELLO. 121 

Cas. The worser that you give me the addi- 
tion 
Whose want even kills me. 

lago. Ply Desdemona well, and you are sure 
on 't. 
Now, if this suit lay in Bianca's dower, 

\Speaking lower. 
How quickly should you speed ! 

Cas. Alas, poor caitiff ! 

0th. \Aside.'\ Look, how he laughs already! 100 
lago. I never knew a woman love man so. 
Cas. Alas, poor rogue ! I think, i' faith, she 

loves me. 
0th. [Aside.] Now he denies it faintly, and 

laughs it out. 
/ago. Do you hear, Cassio ? 
0th. \Aside.\_ Now he importunes him 

To tell it o'er :— go to ; well said, well said. 
lago. She gives it out that you shall marry 
her ; 
Do you intend it? 

Cas. Ha, ha, ha! no 

0th. [Aszde.] Do you triumph, Roman ? Do 

you triumph ? 
Cas. I marry her ! Prithee bear some charity 
to my wit ; do not think it so unwholesome. 
—Ha, ha, ha ! 

0th. [Aside.] So, so, so, so : — they laugh that 

win. 
lago. Faith, the cry goes that you shall marry 

her. 
Cas. Prithee, say true. 
lago. I am a very villain else. 



122 OTHELLO. [activ. 

I20 0th. \Aside.'\ Have you scor'd me? Well. 

Cas. This is the monkey's own giving out; 
she is persuaded I will marry her, out of her 
own love and flattery, not out of my promise. 

0th. [Aside.] lago beckons me; now he be- 
gins the story. 

Cas. She was here even now; she haunts me 

in every place. I was the other day talking on 

the sea-bank with certain Venetians; and thither 

comes the bauble, and falls me thus about my 

130 neck, — 

0th. [Asz'de.] Crying, "O dear Cassio !" as it 
were: his gesture imports it. 

Cas. So hangs and lolls and weeps upon me ; 
so hales and pulls me : — ha, ha, ha ! — 

0th. [Aside.\ Now she tells how she plucked 
him to my chamber. Oh, I see that nose of yours, 
but not that dog I shall throw it to. 

Cas. Well, I must leave her company. 

lago. Before me! look, where she comes. 
140 Cas. 'T is such another fitchew ! marry, a per- 
fum'd one. 

Enter Bianca. 

— What do you mean by this haunting of me ? 
Bian. Let the devil and his dam haunt you ! 
What did you mean by that same handkerchief 
you gave me even now } I was a fine fool to 
take it. I must take out the work ! — A likely 
piece of work, that you should find it in your 
chamber, and know not who left it there ! This 
is some minx's token, and I must take out the 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 123 

work ! There, — give it your hobby-horse ; where- 150 
soever you had it, I'll take out no work on 't. 

Cas. How now, my sweet Bianca ? how now ? 
how now ? 

0th. [Aside. \ By heaven, that should be my 
handkerchief! 

Bzan. An you'll come to supper to-night, you 
may ; an you will not, come when you are next 
prepared for. [Exit. 

I ago. After her, after her. 160 

Cas. Faith, I must ; she'll rail in the street 
else. 

lago. Will you sup there } 

Cas. Yes, I intend so. 

lago. Well, I may chance to see you ; for I 
would very fain speak with you, 

Cas. Prithee, come ; will you ? 

lago. Go to ; say no more. [Exit Cassio. 

0th. [Coming forward.] How shall I murder 

him, lago ? 170 

lago. Did you perceive how he laughed at his 
vice ? 

0th. O, lago ! 

/ago. And did you see the handkerchief .f* 

Oth. Was that mine .? 

lago. Yours, by this hand : and to see how he 
prizes the foolish woman your wife ! she gave it 
him, and he hath given it his mistress. 

Oth. I would have him nine years a-killing. — 
A fine woman ! a fair woman ! a sweet woman ! 

lago. Nay, you must forget that. 180 

Oth. Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be 
damn'd to-night; for she shall not live; no, my 



124 OTHELLO. [act iv. 

heart is turned to stone ; I strike it, and it hurts 
my hand. — O, the world hath not a sweeter crea- 
ture. 

lago. Nay, that's not your way. 

0th. Hang her! I do but say what she is. So 
dehcate with her needle! — An admirable musi- 
cian ! Oh, she will sing the savageness out of a 
190 bear! — Of so high and plenteous wit and inven- 
tion ! 

lago. She's the worse for all this. 

0th. Oh, a thousand thousand times : — and 
then, of so gentle a condition ! 

lago. Ay, too gentle. 

0th. Nay, that's certain : — but yet the pity of 
it, lago ! — O lago, the pity of it, lago ! 

lago. If you are so fond over her iniquity, give 
her patent to offend ; for, if it touch not you, it 
200 comes near nobody. 

Oth. I will chop her into messes : — 

lago. Oh, 't is foul in her ! 

Oth. With mine officer ! 

lago. That 's fouler. 

Oth. Get me some poison, lago; this night: — 
I'll not expostulate with her, lest her body and 
beauty unprovide my mind again : — this night, 
lago. 
210 lago. Do it not with poison ; strangle her m 
her bed, even the bed she hath contaminated. 

Oth. Good, good; the justice of it pleases: 
very good ! 

lago. And, for Cassio, — let me be his under- 
taker : you shall hear more by midnight. 

\A trumpet without. 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 125 

0th. Excellent good. — What trumpet is that 
same ? 

lago. Something from Venice, sure. 'T is 
Lodovico, 
Come from the duke ; and, see, your wife is with 
him. 

Enter LoDOVicO, Desdemona, a7td Attendants. 

Lod. Save you, worthy general ! 

0th. With all my heart, sir. 220 

Lod. The duke and senators of Venice greet 
you. [Gives hiin a packet. 

0th. I kiss the instrument of their pleasure. 

[Opefis the packet, a7id reads. 

Des. And what's the news, good cousin Lodo- 
vico ? 

lago. I am very glad to see you, signior ; 
Welcome to Cyprus. 

Lod. I thank you. How does lieutenant Cas- 
sio ? 

lago. Lives, sir. 

Des. Cousin, there's fall'n between him and my 
lord 
An unkind breach ; but you shall make all well. 

Oth. Are you sure of that.? 

Des. My lord? 

Oth. [Reads.~\ " This fail you not to do, as you 

will " — 230 

Lod. He did not call : he 's busy in the paper. 
Is there division 'twixt my lord and Cassio ? 

Des. A most unhappy one ; I would do much 
T' atone them, for the love I bear to Cassio. 

Oth. Fire and brimstone! 



126 OTHELLO. [act iv. 

Des. My lord ? 

0th. Are you wise ? 

Des. What, is he angry? 

Lod. May be the letter mov'd him ; 

For, as I think, they do command him home, 
Deputing Cassio in his government. 

Des. Trust me, I am glad on 't. 

Oth. Indeed ! 

Des. My lord ? 

Oth. I am glad to see you mad. 
240 Des. Why, sweet Othello, — 

Oth. Devil ! [Striking her, 

Des. I have not deserv'd this. 

Lod. My lord, this would not be believ'd in 
Venice, 
Though I should swear I saw 't : 't is very much ; 
Make her amends ; she weeps. 

Oth. O, devil, devil ! 

If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, 
Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile. — 
Out of my sight ! 

Des. I will not stay to offend you. [Going. 

Lod. Truly, an obedient lady : — 
250 I do beseech your lordship, call her back. 

Oth. Mistress ! 

Des, My lord ? 

Oth. What would you with her, sir } 

Lod. Who, I, my lord ? 

Oth. Ay ; you did wish that I would make her 
turn : 
Sir, she can turn and turn and yet go on 
And turn again ; and she can weep, sir, weep ; 
And she's obedient, as you say, — obedient; — 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 127 

Very obedient. — Proceed you in your tears. — 
Concerning this, sir, — O well-painted passion !--- 
I am commanded home. — Get you away ; 
I'll send for you anon. — Sir, I obey the mandate, 260 
And will return to Venice. — Hence, avaunt ! 

{^Exit Desdemona. 
Cassio shall have my place. And, sir, to-night, 
I do entreat that we may sup together ; 
You are welcome, sir, to Cyprus.— Goats and 
monkeys ! \Exit. 

Lod. Is this the noble Moor whom our full 
senate 
Call all in all sufficient } Is this the nature 
Whom passion could not shake } Whose solid 

virtue 
The shot of accident nor dart of chance 
Could neither graze nor pierce } 

lago. He is much chang'd, 

Lod. Are his wits safe.^ is he not light of brain } 270 
lago. He's — that he is ; I may not breathe my 
censure. 
What he might be, — if what he might be he is 

not, — 
I would to heaven he were! 
Lod. What strike his wife ! 

lago. Faith, that was not so well ; yet would I 
knew 
That stroke would prove the worst. 

Lod. Is it his use.'* 

Or did the letters work upon his blood. 
And new-create this fault ? 

lago. Alas, alas! 

It is not honesty m me to speak 



128 OTHELLO. [act iv. 

What I have seen and known. You shall observe 
him, 
280 And his own courses will denote him so 

That I may save my speech ; do but go after 
And mark how he continues. 

Lod. I 'm sorry that I am deceived in him. 

{Exeunt. 

Scene II. A Roo??i m the Castle. 

Enter Othello and Emilia. 

0th. You have seen nothing then } 
Emit. Nor ever heard, nor ever did suspect. 
0th. Yes, you have seen Cassio and she to- 
gether. 
Emzl. But then I saw no harm, and then I 
heard 
Each syllable that breath made up between them. 
OM.'What, did they never whisper? 
10 E7nil. Never, my lord. 

0th. Nor send you out.o' the way.? 
E7nil. Never. 

0th. To fetch her fan, her gloves, her mask, 

nor nothing.? 
Emit. Never, my lord. 
0th. That's strange. 

Emil. I durst, my lord, to wager she is honest, 
Lay down my soul at stake : if you think other. 
Remove your thought; it doth abuse your 

bosom. 
If any wretch have put this in your head, 
Let heaven requite it with the serpent's curse ! 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. i2g 

For, if she be not honest, chaste, and true, 
There's no man happy ; the purest of their 

wives 
Is foul as slander. 

0th. Bid her come hither : — go — ■ 

{^Exit Emilia. 
She says enough: yet she's a simple bawd 20 

That cannot say as much. This is a subtle 

wanton, 
A closet-lock-and-key of villanous secrets: 
And yet she'll kneel and pray ; I have seen her 

do 't. 

Enter EMILIA with Desdemona. 

Des. My lord, what is your will .? 
0th. Pray, chuck, come hither. 

Des. What is you pleasure } 
0th. Let me see your eyes ; 

Look in my face. 
Des. What horrible fancy 's this } 

0th. Some of your function, mistress; shut 
the door; [T^* Emilia.] 

Cough, or cry " Hem,'' if anybody come : 
Your mystery, your mystery ; nay, despatch I 30 

YExit Emilia. 
Des. Upon my knees, what doth your speech 
import.'' • 

I understand a fury in your words. 
But not the words. 

0th. Why, what art thou } 

Des. Your wife, my lord ; your true and loyal 

wife. 
0th. Come, swear it, damn thyself ; 



I30 OTHELLO. [act iv. 

Lest, being like one of heaven, the devils them- 
selves 
Should fear to seize thee : therefore be double- 

damn'd ; 
Swear thou art honest. 
Des. Heaven doth truly know it. 

0th. Heaven truly knows that thou art false as 
hell. 
40 Des. To whom, my lord } with whom ? how 
am I false ? 
0th. Ah, Desdemona ! — away ! away ! away ! 
Des. Alas, the heavy day ! — Why do you weep ? 
Am I the motive of these tears, my lord ? 
If haply you my father do suspect 
An instrument of this your calling back. 
Lay not your blame on me ; if you have lost him, 
Why, I have lost him too. 

0th. Had it pleas'd heaven 

To try me with affliction ; had they rain'd 
All kinds of sores and shames on my bare head, 
SoSteep'd me in poverty to the very lips, 

Given to captivity me and my utmost hopes, 
I should have found in some place of my soul 
A drop of patience : but alas ! to make me 
The fixed figure for the time of Scorn 
To point his slow and moving finger at! 
Yet could I bear that too, well, very well ; 
But there, where I have garner'd up my heart, 
Where either I must live or bear no life. 
The fountain from the which my current runs 
Or else dries up— to be discarded thence ! 
60 Or keep it as a cistern for foul toads 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 131 

To knot and gender in ! — Turn thy complexion 

there, 
Patience, thou young and rose-lipp'd cherubin !— ~ 
Ay, there, look grim as hell ! 

Des. 1 hope my noble lord esteems me honest. 

Oih. Oh, ay ; as summer flies are in the sham- 
bles, 
That quicken even with blowing. O thou weed, 
Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet 
That the sense aches at thee, — would thou hadst 
ne'er been born ! 

Des. Alas, what ignorant sin have I com- 
mitted } 70 

0th. Was this fair paper, this most goodly 
book. 
Made to write " trull " upon ?— What committed ! 
Committed! O, thou public commoner! 
I should make very forges of my cheeks. 
That would to cinders burn up modesty. 
Did I but speak thy deeds. — What committed ! 
Heaven stops the nose at it and the moon winks ; 
The bawdy wind, that kisses all it meets 
Is hush'd within the hollow mine of earth 
And will not hear it. — What committed ! — 80 

Impudent wanton ! 

Des. By heaven, you do me wrong I 

0th. Are not you a wanton ? 

Des. No, as I am a Christian ! 

If to preserve this vessel for my lord 
From any other foul unlawful touch, 
Be not to be a wanton, I am none. 

0th. Is 't possible? 

Des. Oh, heaven forgive us ! 



132 OTHELLO. [act iv. 

0th. I cry you mercy then ; 

I took you for that cunning trull of Venice 
That married with Othello. — {Raising his voice.] 
go You, mistress, 

That have th.e office opposite to St. Peter, 
And keep the gate of hell ! 

Re-enter EMILIA. 

You ! you ! ay, you ! 
We have done our course; there 's money for 

your pains : 
I pray you, turn the key and keep our counsel. 

{Exit. 
Einil. Alas! what does this gentleman con- 
ceive ? — 
How do you, madam } how do you, my good 
lady } 
Des. Faith, half asleep. 
Einil. Good madam, what's the matter with 

my lord } 
Des. With who ? 
loo Einil, Why, with my lord, madam. 

Des. Who is thy lord } 

Einil. He that is yours, sweet lady. 

Des. I have none : do not talk to me, Emilia; 
I cannot weep ; nor answer have I none, 
But what should go by water. Prithee, to-night 
Lay on my bed my wedding sheets, — remem- 
ber; — 
And call thy husband hither. 

Einil. Here's a change, indeed ! 

{Exit' 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 133 

Des. T is meet I should be used so, very 
meet. 
How have I been behav'd, that he might stick 
The small'st opinion on my great'st abuse? 

Re-enter EMILIA with I A GO. 

lago. What is your pleasure, madam ? How 

is't with you.? no 

Des. I cannot tell. Those that do teach 
young babes 
Do it with gentle means and easy tasks : 
He might have chid me so; for, in good faith, 
I am a child to chiding. 
lago. What's the matter, lady ? 

Emil. Alas ! lago, my lord hath so besmirch'd 
her. 
Thrown such despite and heavy terms upon her. 
As true hearts cannot bear. 
Des. Am I that name, lago? 
lago. What name, fair lady ? 

Des. Such as she said my lord did say I was. 
Emil. A beggar in his drink 120 

Could not have laid such terms upon his callet. 
Ingo. Why did he so ? 
Des. I do not know ; I am sure I am none 

such. 
lago. Do not weep, do not weep : — Alas the 

day ! 
Emil. Hath she forsook so many noble 
matches, 
Her father, and her country, and her friends, 
To be called trull ? would it not make one weep ? 
Des. It is my wretched fortune. 



134 OTHELLO. [act iv. 

lago. Beshrew him for 't ! 

How comes this trick upon him ? 
Des. Nay, heaven doth know. 

130 Emil. I will be hang'd if some eternal villain, 
Some busy and insinuating rogue, 
Some cogging, cozening slave, to get some office, 
Have not devis'd this slander : I'll be hang'd else. 
lago. Fie, there is no such man ; it is impossi- 
ble. 
Des. If any such there be, heaven pardon him ! 
Emil. A halter pardon him ! and hell gnaw^ 
his bones ! 
The Moor's abus'd by some most villanous 

knave. 
Some base, notorious knave, some scurvy fellow. 

heaven, that such companions thou 'dst un- 

fold, 
140 And put in every honest hand a whip 

To lash the rascals naked through the world 
Even from the east to the west! 

lago. Speak within door. 

Ejml. Oh, fie upon them ! Some such squire 
he was 
That turn'd your wit the seamy side without 
And made you to suspect me with the Moor. 
lago. You are a fool ; go to. 
Des. Alas, lago, 

What shall I do to win my lord again } « 

150 Good friend, go to him; for, by this light of 
heaven, 

1 know not how I lost him. Here I kneel : — 
If e'er my will did trespass 'gainst his love. 
Either in discourse of thought or actual deed. 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 135 

Or that mine eyes, mine ears, or any sense, 

Delighted them in any other form, 

Or that I do not yet and ever did 

And ever will— though he do shake me off 

To beggarly divorcement— love him dearly, 

Comfort forswear me! Unkindness may do 

much ; 160 

And his unkindness may defeat my life. 
But never taint my love. 

lago. I pray you, be^ content ; 't is but his 
humor ; 
The business of the state does him offence. 
And he does chide with you. 

Des. If 't were no other ! — 

lago. 'T is but so, I warrant. 

YTriunpets without. 
Hark, how these instruments summon to supper ! 
The messengers of Venice stay the meat. 
Go in and weep not; all things shall be well. 

\_Exeunt Desdemona ajid Emilia., 

Enter RODERIGO. 

How now, Roderigo ? 

Rod. I do not find that thou deal'st justly with 

me. I/O 

lago. What in the contrary ? 

Rod. Every day thou daff'st me with some 
device, lago ; and rather, as it seems to me now, 
keep'st from me all conveniency than suppliest 
me with the least advantage of hope. I will 
indeed no longer endure it, nor am I yet per- 180 
suaded to put up in peace what already I have 
foolishly suffered. 



136 OTHELLO. [act iv. 

lago. Will you hear me, Roderigo? 

Rod. Faith, I have heard too much for your 
words and performances are no kin together. 

lago. You charge me most unjustly. 

Rod. With nought but truth. I have wasted 
myself out of my means. The jewels you have 
had from me to deliver to Desdemona would 
half have corrupted a votarist : you have told 
190 me she hath received them, and returned me 
expectations and comforts of sudden respect and 
acquaintance, but I find none. 

lago. Well ; go to ; very well. 

Rod. "Very well! go to I " I cannot go to, 
man ; nor 't is not very well : nay, I think it is 
scurvy, and begin to find myself fobbed in it. 

lago. Very well. 

Rod. I tell you 't is not very well. I will make 
myself known to Desdemona: if she will return 
200 me my jewels, I will give over my suit, and re- 
pent my unlawful solicitation ; if not, assure your- 
self I will seek satisfaction of you. 

lago. You have said now. 

Rod. Ay, and said nothing but what I protest 
intendment of doing. 

lago. Why, now I see there's mettle in thee; 
and even from this instant do build on thee a 
better opinion than ever before. Give me thy 
^10 hand, Roderigo : thou hast taken against me a 
most just exception ; but yet, I protest, I have 
dealt most directly in thy affair. 

Rod. It hath not appeared. 

lago. I grant indeed it hath not appeared, and 
your suspicion is not without wit and judgment. 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 137 

But, Roderigo, if thou hast that in thee indeed 
which I have greater reason to beheve now than 
ever, — I mean purpose, courage, and valor, — this 
night show it ; if thou the next night following 220 
enjoy not Desdemona, take me from this world 
with treachery and devise engines for my life. 
Rod. Well, what is it? is it within reason and 



compass 



lago. Sir, there is a special commission come 
from Venice to depute Cassio in Othello's place. 

Rod. Is that true? why, then Othello and Des- 
demona return again to Venice. 

lago. Oh, no ; he goes into Mauritania and 
takes away with him the fair Desdemona, unless 230 
his abode be lingered here by some accident ; 
wherein none can be so determinate as the re- 
moving of Cassio. 

Rod. How do you mean removing of him ? 

lago. Why, by making him uncapable of 
Othello's place, — knocking out his brains. 

Rod. And that you would have me to do ? 

lago. Ay, if you dare do yourself a profit and 
a right. He sups to-night with Bianca, and thith- 
er will I go to him: — he knows not yet of his 240 
honorable fortune. If you will watch his going 
thence, which I will fashion to fall out between 
twelve and one, you may take him at your pleas- 
ure : I will be near to second your attempt, and 
he shall fall between us. Come, stand not 
amazed at it, but go along with me ; I will show 
you such a necessity in his death that you shall 
think yourself bound to put it on him. It is now 



138 OTHELLO. [act iv. 

high supper-time, and the night grows to waste : 
250 about it. 

Rod. I will hear further reason for this. 
lago. And you shall be satisfied. {Exeunt. 

Scene III. A^iother Roo?n in the Castle. 

Enter Othello, Lodovico, Desdemona, 
Emilia, and Attendants. 
Lod. I do beseech you, sir, trouble yourself no 

further. 
0th. Oh, pardon me ; 't will do me good to 

walk. 
Lod. Madam, good night; I humbly thank 

your ladyship. 
Des. Your honor is most welcome. 
0th. Will you walk, sir } — 

Oh, — Desdemona, — 

Des. My lord } 

0th. Get you to bed on the instant; I will 
be returned forthwith : dismiss your attendant 
there ; look it be done. 
10 Des. I will my lord. 

{Exeimt Othello, Lodovico, and Attendants, 
Emit. How goes it now } he looks gentler 

than he did. 
Des. He says he will return incontinent ; 
He hath commanded me to go bed, 
And bade me to dismiss you. 

Etnil. Dismiss me ! 

Des. It was his bidding; therefore, good Emilia, 
Give me my nightly wearing, and adieu : 
We must not now displease him. 



sc. iir.] ■ OTHELLO. 139 

EmiL I would you had never seen him ! 
Des. So would not I ; my love doth so approve 
him 
That even his stubbornness, his checks, his 

frowns, — 20 

Prithee, unpin me, — have grace and favor in 
them. 
EmiL I have laid those sheets you bade me 

on the bed. 
Des. All's one. — Good faith, how foolish are 
our minds ! — 
If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me 
In one of these same sheets. 
EmiL Come, come, you talk. 

Des. My mother had a maid call'd Barbara : 
She was m love ; and he she lov'd prov'd mad 
And did forsake her : she had a song of " Wil- 
low," 
An old thing 't was, but it express'd her fortune. 
And she died singing it. That song to-night 30 
Will not go from my mind ; I've much to do 
But to go hang my head all at one side. 
And sing it like poor Barbara. Prithee, des- 
patch. 
EmiL Shall I go fetch your night-gown } 
Des. No, unpin me here. — 

This Lodovico is a proper man. 
EmiL A very handsome man. 
Des. He speaks well. 

EmiL I know a lady in Venice would have 
walked barefoot to Palestine for a touch of his 
nether lip. 40 



I40 OTHELLO. [act iv, 

Des. [Singing.] The poor soul sat sighing by ce. 
sycamore tree. 
Sing all a green willow : 
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee^ 

Sing willow, willow, willow ; 
The fresh streams rait by her, and murmur d 
her moans ; 
Sing willow, willow, willow ; 
Her salt tears fell from her, and soften d the 
stones ; — 
Lay by these : — 

Sing willow^ willow, willow ; 
50 Prithee, hie thee; he'll come anon : — 

Sing all a green willow must be nty garland. 
Let nobody bla?ne him, his scorn I approve, — 
Nay, that's not next. — Hark ! who is't that 
knocks? 
Emit. It is the wind. 

Des. / calLd 7ny love false love ; but what said 
he then ? 

Sing willow, willow, willow ; 
So, get thee gone; good night. Mine eyes do 

itch ; 
Doth that bode weeping ? 

Emit. 'T is neither here nor there. 

60 Des. I have heard it said so. — Oh, these men, 
these men ! — 
Dost thou in conscience think — tell me, Emilia — 
That there be women do abuse their husbands 
In such gross kind.^ 

E77til. There be some such, no question. 

Des. Wouldst thou do such a deed for all the 
world } 



sc. III.] OTHELLO. 141 

EmiL Why, would not you ? 

Des. No, by this heavenly light [ 

EmiL The world's a huge thing : it is a great 
price 
For a small vice. 

Des. Beshew me, if I would do such a wrong 
for the whole world. ' 

EmiL Why, the wrong is but a wrong i' the 
world; and, having the world for your labor, 70 
't is a wrong in your own world, and you might 
quickly make it right. 

Des. I do not think there is any such woman. 

EmiL Yes, a dozen ; and as many to the vant- 
age, as would store the world they played for. 
But I do think it is their husbands' faults 
If wives do fall : say that they slack their duties, 
And pour our treasures into foreign laps, 
Or else break out in peevish jealousies, 
Throwing restraint upon us; or say they strike 

us. 
Or scant our former having in despite; 80 

Why, we have galls; and, though we have some 

grace, 
Yet have we some revenge. Let husbands know 
Their wives have sense like them : they see and 

smell 
And have their palates both for sweet and sour. 
As husbands have. What is it that they do 
When they change us for others? Is it sport } 
I think it is : and doth affection breed it.^ 
I think it doth : is 't frailty that thus errs ? 
It is so too : — and have not we affections. 
Desires for sport, and frailty, as men have .^^ 90 



142 OTHELLO. [act v. 

Then let them use us well ; else let them know, 
The ills we do, their ills instruct us so. 

Des. Good-night, good-night : heaven me such 
uses send, 
Not to pick bad from bad. but by bad mend ! 

\Exeu7it. 



ACT V. 

Scene I. The same. A street. 

Ente7' I AGO and RODERIGO. 

lago. Here, stand behind this bulk; straight 
will be come : 
Wear thy good rapier bare, and put it home. 
Quick, quick ; fear nothing ; I'll be at thy elbow. 
It makes us, or it mars us ; think on that 
And fix most firm thy resolution. 

Rod. Be near at hand ; I may miscarry in 't. 
lago. Here, at thy hand; be bold and take 
thy stand. [Retzres. 

Rod. I have no great devotion to the deed; 
And yet he hath given me satisfying reasons: — 
lo'T is but a man gone: — forth, my sword; he 
dies ! [Goes to his stand, 

lago. I 've rubb'd this young quat almost to 
the sense, 
And he grows angry. Now, whether he kill 

Cassio, 
Or Cassio him, or each do kill the other. 
Every way makes my gain. Live Roderigo, 
He calls me to a restitution large 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 143 

Of gold and jewels that I bobb'd from him, 

As gifts to Desdemona ; 

It must not be. If Cassio do remain, 

He hath a daily beauty in his life 

That makes me ugly; and, besides, the Moor 20 

May unfold me to him; there stand I in much 

peril : 
No, he must die: but. so, I hear him coming. 

Enter Cassio. 

Rod. I know his gait, 't is he: — Villain, thou 
diest ! {^Makes a pass at Cassio, 

Cas. That thrust had been mine enemy indeed, 
But that my coat is better than thou know'st : 
I will make proof of thine. 

{Draws, and wounds RODERIGO. 
Rod. Oh, I am slain ! 

\\kq.O cuts Cassio behind m the leg, and exit. 

Cas. I am maim'd forever, — Help, ho ! murder! 

murder ! {Falls. 

Enter Othello, at a distance. 

Oth. The voice of Cassio : lago keeps hts 
word. 

Rod. Oh, villain that I am ! 

Oth. 'T is even so. 

Cas. Oh, help! ho! light! a surgeon ! 30 

Oth. 'T is he ! — O brave lago, honest and just, 
That hast such noble sense of thy friend's wrong ! 
Thou teachest me. — Minion, your dear lies dead. 
And your unblest fate hies. — Wanton, I come ! 
Forth of my heart those charms, thine eyes, are 
blotted ; 



144 OTHELLO. [act v. 

Thy bed, lust-stain'd, shall with lust's blood be 
spotted. [Exit. 

Enter LODOVICO and Gratiano. 

Cas. What, ho ! no watch ? no passage ? 

murder I murder ! 
Gra. 'T is some mischance ; the voice is verv 

direful. 
Cas. Qh, help ! 
40 Lod. Hark ! 

Rod. O wretched villain ! 

Lod. Two or three groan ; — it is a heavy night : 
These may be counterfeits ; let 's think 't unsafe 
To come in to the cry without more help. 

Rod. Nobody come? then shall I bleed to 

death. 
Lod. Hark: 
Gra. Here's one comes in his shirt, with light 

and weapons. 

Re-enter I AGO. with a light. 

Lago. Who's there } whose noise is this that 

cries on murder? 
Lod. We do not know. 

Lago. Did not you hear a cry ? 

Cas. Here, here! for heaven's sake, help me! 
50 Lago. What's the matter? 

Gra. This is Othello's ancient, as I take it. 
Lod. The same, indeed ; a very valiant fellow. 
Lago. What are you here that cry so grievously? 
Cas. lago ? Oh, I am spoil'd, undone by vil- 
lains ! 
Give me some help. 



sc. I.] OTHELLO. 145 

lago. O me, lieutenant ! what villains have 
done this ? 

Cas. I think that one of them is hereabout. 
And cannot make away. 

lago. O treacherous villains ! — 

What are you there ? come in, and give some 

lielp. YTo LoDOVico a7id Gratiano. 

Rod. Oh, help me here ! 60 

Cas. That's one of them. 

lago. O murderous slave! O villain ! 

{^Stabs RODERIGO. 

Rod. O damn'd lago! O inhuman dog! — 

{Dies. ■ 
lago. Kill men i' the dark — Where be these 
bloody thieves } — 
How silent is this town! — Ho! murder! mur- 
der!— 
What may you be } are you of good or evil ? 
Lod. As you shall prove us, praise us. 
Jago. Signior Lodovico .f* 
Lod. He, sir. 
lago. I cry you mercy. Here 's Cassio hurt by 

villains. 
Gra. Cassio I 70 

lago. How is 't, brother } 

Cas. My leg is cut in two. 

Lago. Marry, heaven forbid ! — 

Light, gentlemen ; — I'll bind it with my shirt. 

Enter Bianca. 

Bian. What is the matter, ho } who is 't that 
cried } 



146 OTHELLO. [act v. 

lago. " Who is 't that cried ? " 

Bian. O my dear Cassio ! ray sweet Cassio ! O 

Cassio ! Cassio ! Cassio ! 
lago. O notable harlot ! — Cassio, may you sus- 
pect 
Who they should be that have thus mangled you ? 
80 Cas. No. 

Gra. I 'm sorry to find you thus : I've been to 

seek you. 
lago. Lend me a garter. — So. — Oh, for a 
chaif 
To bear him easily hence ! 
Bia7i. Alas ! he faints ! — O Cassio ! Cassio ! 

Cassio ! ■ 
lago. Gentlemen all, I do suspect this trash 
To be a party in this injury. — 
Patience awhile, good Cassio. — Come, come ; 
Lend me a light. — Know we this face or no } 
Alas! my friend and my dear countryman 
90 Roderigo } no ; — yes, sure ; O heaven ! Roderi- 
go. 
Gra. What, of Venice ? 
lago. Even he, sir : did you know him } 
Gra. Know him ! ay. 

lago. Signior Gratiano ? I cry you gentle par- 
don ; 
These bloody accidents must excuse my man- 
ners, 
That so neglected you. 

Gra. I 'm glad to see you. 

lago. How do you, Cassio.?— Oh, a chair, a 

chair ! 
Gra. Roderigo ! 



SCI.] OTHELLO. 147 

lago. He, he, 't is he. — O that's well said ; — the 
chair : — \A chair brought in. 

Some good man bear him carefully from hence ; 

I'll fetch the general's surgeon. — For you, mis- 
tress, [7b BiANCA. 100 

Save you your labor. — He that lies slain here, 
Cassio, 

Was my dear friend : what malice was between 
you } 
Cas. None in the world ; nor do I know the 

man, 
lago. [76' BiAN.] What, look you pale?— Oh, 
bear him out o' the air. — 

[Cassio and Roderigo are borate off. 

Stay you, good gentlemen. — Look you pale, mis- 
tress ? — 

Do you perceive the gastness of her eye ? — 

Nay, if you stare, we shall hear more anon : — 

Behold her well ; I pray you, look upon her ; 

Do you see, gentlemen ? nay, guiltiness will 
speak. 

Though tongues were out of use. no 

Enter Emilia. 

Emit. Alas ! what's the matter ? what's the 

matter, husband ? 
lago. Cassio hath here been set on in the dark 
By Roderigo and fellows that are 'scap'd : 
He 's almost slain, and Roderigo dead. 
Einil. Alas, good gentlemen ! alas, good Cas- 
sio ! 
lago. Prithee, Emilia, 

Go know of Cassio where he supp'd to-night : — 



148 OTHELLO, [act v. 

What, do you shake at that ? [To Bianca. 

Bian. He supp'd at my house; but I therefore 
shake not. 
1 20 lago. Oh, did he so ? I charge you, go with 
me. 
Emil. Fie, fie upon thee, harlot ! 
Bian. I am no harlot; but of life as honest 
As you that thus abuse me. 

Emil. As I } foh ! fie upon thee ! 

lago. Kind gentlemen, let's go see poorCassio 
dress'd. — 
Oome, mistress, you must tell 's another tale. — 
Emilia, run you to the citadel. 
And tell my lord and lady what hath happ'd. — 
Will you go on afore .? — This is the night {^Aside. 
That'either makes me or fordoes me quite. 

{^Exeunt. 

Scene II. A Bedchamber : Desdefnona in bed 
asleep. A light burnijtg. 

Enter Othello. 

0th. It is the cause, it is the cause, my soul, — 
Let me not name it to you, you chaste stars ! — 
It is the cause. — Yet I 'U not shed her blood ; 
Nor scar that whiter skin of hers than snow. 
And smooth as monumental alabaster. 
Yet she must die, else she '11 betray more men. 

Put out the light, and then put out thy light ! 

If I quench thee, thou framing minister, 
I can again thy former light restore, 
10 Should I repent me :— but, once put out thy 
light. 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 149 

Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature, 
I know not where is that Promethean heat 
That can thy light relume. When I have pluck'd 

thy rose, 
I cannot give it vital growth again. 
It needs must wither: I'll smell it on the tree. — 

{^Kissing her. 
Ah, balmy breath, that dost almost persuade 
Justice to break her sword ! — One more, one 

more. 
Be thus when thou art dead, and I will kill thee, 
And love thee after. — One more, and this the 

last : 
So sweet was ne'er so fatal. I must weep, 20 

But they are cruel tears : this sorrow 's heavenly : 
It strikes where it doth love. — She wakes. 

Des. Who's there } Othello } 

Oth. Ay, Desdemona. 

Des. Will you come to bed, my lord } 

Oth. Have you pray'd to-night, Desdemona } 

Des. [Ay, my lord. 

Oth. If you bethink yourself of any crime 
UnreconciPd as yet to heaven and grace. 
Solicit for it straight. 

Des. Alack, my lord, what may you mean by 
that ? 

Oth. Well, do it, and be brief ; I will walk by: 30 
I would not kill thy unprepared spirit ; 
No, — Heaven forfend ! I would not kill thy 
soul. 

Des. Talk you of killing ? 

Oth. Ay, I do. 

Des. Then heaven 



150 OTHELLO. [act v. 

Have mercy on me ! 

0th. Amen, with all my heart ! 

Des. If you say so, I hope you will not kill me. 
0th. Hum ! 

Des. And yet I fear you : for you are fatal 
then 
When your eyes roll so : why I should fear I 

know not 
Since guiltiness I know not; but yet I feel I fear. 
Oth. Think on thy sins. 
40 Des. They 're loves I bear to you. 

Oth. Ay, and for that thou diest. 
Des. That death 's unnatural that kills for lov- 
ing.— 
Alas, why gnaw you so your nether lip ? 
Some bloody passion shakes your very frame : 
These are portents ; but yet I hope, I hope, 
They do not point on me. 

Oth. Peace, and be still ! 

Des. I will so. What's the matter.^ 
Oth. That handkerchief which I so lov'd and 
gave thee 
Thou gav'st to Cassio. 

Des. No, by my life and soul ! 

Send for the man, and ask him. 
50 Oth. Sweet soul, take heed. 

Take heed of perjury ; thou 'rt on thy death- 
bed. 
Des. Ay, but not yet to die. 
Oth. Yes, presently ; 

Therefore confess thee freely of thy sin; 
For to deny each article with oath 
Cannot remove nor choke the strong conception 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 151 

That I do groan withal. Thou art to die. 

Des. Then Lord have mercy on me ! 

0th. I say, amen ! 

Des. And have you mercy too ! — I never did 
Offend you in my life ; never lov'd Cassio 
But with such general warranty of heaven 60 

As I might love : I never gave him token. 

0th. B}^ heaven, I saw my handkerchief in 's 
hand, 

perjur'd woman ! thou dost stone my heart. 
And mak'st me call what I intend to do 

A murder, which I thought a sacrifice: 

1 saw the handkerchief. 

Des. He found it then ; 

I never gave It him :— send for him hither ; 
Let him confess a truth. 

0th. His mouth is stopp'd ; 70 

Honest lago hath ta'en order for't. 

Des. Oh, my fear interprets ! — what, is he 
dead ? 

0th. Had all his hairs been lives, my great re- 
venge 
Had stomach for them all. 

Des. Alas, he is betray'd and I undone ! 

0th. Out, wanton ! weep'st thou for him to 
my face ? 

Des. Oh, banish me, my lord, but kill me not! 

0th. Down, wanton ! 

Des. Kill me to-morrow ; let me live to-night ! 80 

Oth. Nay, if you strive, — 

Des, But half an hour ! 

Oth. Being done, there is no pause. 



152 OTHELLO. [act v. 

Des. But while I say one prayer ! 

0th. It is too late. \^He stifies her. 

Eniil. \^Wiihont.'\ My lord! my lord! what 

ho ! my lord ! my lord ! 
0th. What noise is this? — Not dead? not yet 
quite dead ? 
I that am cruel am yet merciful ; 
I would not have thee linger in thy pain : — 
So, so. 

Emil. [ IVithoitt.l What ho ! my lord ! my 

lord ! 
0th. Who's there? 

90 Emil. 'ilVithout.'] O good my lord, I'd speak 
a word with you ! 
0th. Yes: — 't is Emilia; — by-and-by.— She 's 
dead.— 
'T is like she comes to speak of Cassio's death ; 
The noise was high. — Ha! no more moving? 
Still as the grave. Shall she come in? were 't 

good ? 
I think she stirs again : — no. — What 's best to 

do? 
If she come in, she '11 sure speak to my wife : 
My wife ! my wife ! what wife 7 — I have no wife. 
Oh, insupportable! O heavy hour! 
Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse 
Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe 
100 Should yawn at alteration. 

Emil. [ IVit/ioiit.] I do beseech you that I may 
speak with you, 
O good my lord ! 

Oth. I had forgot thee. Oh, come in, Emilia :— 
Soft, — by-and-by. Let me the curtains draw. — 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 153 

Where art thou ? {Opens the door. 

Enter Emilia. 
What's the matter with thee now? 
Emi'l. O my good lord, yonder 's foul murder 

done ! 
Otk. What, now? 

Emit. But now, my lord ! 

Otk. It is the very error of the moon ; 
She comes more nearer earth than she was 

wont, 110 

And makes men mad. 

EjJtil. Cassio, my lord, hath kill'd a young 
Venetian 
Call'd Roderigo. 

0th. Roderigo kill'd ! 

And Cassio kill'd ! 

Emit. No, Cassio is not kill'd. 

0th. Not Cassio kill'd I then murder 's out of 
tune, 
And sweet revenge grows harsh. 
Des. Oh, falsely, falsely murder'd ! 
Einil. Alas ! what cry is that ? 

0th. That! what? 

E7niL Out, and alas ! that was my lady's 
voice ! — 
Help ! help, ho ! help ! — O lady, speak again ! 120 
Sweet Desdemona ! O sweet mistress, speak ! 
Des. A guiltless death I die. 
Emit. Oh, who hath done this deed ? 
Des. Nobody; I myself. Farewell! 

Commend me to my kind lord : oh, farewell ! 

{Dies. 
0th. Why, how should she be murder'd ? 



154 OTHELLO. [act v. 

Emil. Alas ! who knows ? 

Oik. You heard her say herself it was not I. 
Emil. She said so : I must needs report the 

truth. 
Olh. She's like a liar gone to burning hell ! 
'T was I that killed her. 
130 Emil. Oh, the more angel she. 

And you the blacker devil ! 

0th. She turn'd to folly, and she was a 

wanton. 
Emil. Thou dost belie her, and thou art a 

devil. 
Oth. She was false as water. 
Emil. Thou art rash as fire to say 

That she was false : oh, she was heavenly true ! 
Oth. Oh, I were damn'd beneath all depth in 
hell, 
But that I did proceed upon just grounds 
To this extremity ! Thy husband knew it all. 
140 Emil. My husband ! 
Oth. Thy husband. 

EiniL That she was false to wedlock } 
Oth. Ay, with Cassio. Nay, had she been 
true, 
If heaven would make me such another world 
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite, 
I'd not have sold her for it. 
Emil. My husband ! 

Oth. Ay, 't was he that told me first ; 

An honest man he is, and hates the slime 
That sticks on filthy deeds. 

Emil. • My husband ! 



sc. 11. ] OTHELLO, 155 

0th. What needs this iteration, woman? I 

say thy husband. 150 

Emil. O mistress, villany hath made mocks 
with love ! — 
My husband say that she was false ? 

0th. He, woman; 

I say thy husband : dost understand the word ? 
My friend, thy husband, honest, honest lago. 

Emil. If he say so, may his pernicious soul 
Rot half a grain a day ! he lies to the heart : 
She was too fond of her most filthy bargain. 

0th. Ha! 

Emil. Do thy worst ; 
This deed of thine is no more worthy heaven 160 
Than thou wast worthy her. 

0th. Peace ! you were best. 

E7nil. Thou hast not half that power to do 
me harm 
As I have to be hurt. O gull ! O dolt ! 
As ignorant as dirt ! thou hast done a deed — 
I care not for thy sword ; I'll make thee known 
Though I lost twenty lives. — Help! help! ho! 

help! 
The Moor hath killed my mistress ! Murder ! 
murder ! 

Enter Montana, Gratiano, and Iago. 

Mon. What is the matter.^ — How now, gen- 
eral ! 
Emzl. Oh, are you come, Iago } you've done 

well 170 

That men must lay their murders on your neck. 
Gra. What is the matter.'* 



156 OTHELLO. [act v. 

Emit. Disprove this villain, if thou be'st a 
man : 
He says thou toldst him that his wife was false : 
I know thou didst not, thou 'rt not such a vil- 
lain : 
Speak, for my heart is full. 

lago. I told him what I thought ; and told no 
more 
Than what he found himself was apt and true. 
E^nil. But did you ever tell him she was false ? 
lago. I did. 
i8o Emil. You told a He; an odious, damned lie; 
Upon my soul, a lie, a wicked lie ! — 
She false with Cassio ! — did you say with Cassio ? 
lago. With Cassio, mistress. Go to, charm 

your tongue. 
Emil. I will not charm my tongue : I 'm bound 
to speak: 
My mistress here lies murder'd in her bed, — 
All. Oh, heavens forfend ! 
Emil. And your reports have set the murde. 

on. 
0th. Nay, stare not, masters ; it is true, in- 
deed. 
Gra. 'T is a strange truth. 
Mon. O monstrous act ! 
190 Emil. Villany, villany, villany ! 

I think upon 't, I think;—! smell 't ; — O vil- 
lany ! — 
I thought so then ; — I '11 kill myself for grief. — 
O villany, villany ! 

lago. What, are you mad } 1 charge you, get 
you home. 



I 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 157 

EmiL Good gentlemen, let me have leave to 
speak ; 
'T is proper I obey him, but not now. — 
Perchance, lago, I will ne'er go home. 

0th. Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! \Falling on the bed. 

Efnzl. Nay, lay thee down and roar ; 

For thou hast kill'd the sweetest innocent 
That e'er did lift up eye. 

0th. Oh, she was foul ! — [Rismg. 200 

I scarce did know you, uncle. There lies your 

niece, 
Whose breatli, indeed, these hands have newly 

stopp'd : 
I know this act shows horrible and grim. 

Gra. Poor Desdemon ! I 'm glad thy father 's 
dead : 
Thy match was mortal to him, and pure grief 
Shore his old thread in twain ; did he live now. 
This sight would make him do a desperate turn, 
Yea, curse his better angel from his side, 
And fall to reprobation. 

0th. 'T is pitiful ; but yet lago knows 210 

That she did gratify his amorous works 
With that recognizance and pledge of love 
Which I first gave her; I saw it in his hand :, 
It was a handkerchief, an antique token 
My father gave my mother. 

Emit. O heaven ! O heavenly powers ! 

lago. Zounds, hold your peace! 

Emil. 'T will out, 't will out ! — I hold my 
peace, sir.? no ! 
No. I will speak as liberal as the north ! 220 

Let heaven and men and devils, let them all, 



158 OTHELLO. [act v. 

All, all, cry shame against me, yet I '11 speak ! 
lago. Be wise, and get you home. 
Emil. I will not. 

[I AGO offers to stab Emilia. 
Gra. Fie ! 

Your sword upon a woman ? 

Ejnil. O thou dull Moor ! That handkerchief 
thou speak'st of 
I found by fortune, and did give my husband ; 
For, often with a solemn earnestness,— 
More than indeed belong'd to such a trifle, — 
He begged of me to steal it. 

lago. Villanous wanton ! 

230 E)7iil. She gave it Cassio ! no, alas, I found it, 
And I did give 't my husband. 

lago. Filth, thou liest ! 

Etnil. By heaven, I do not ! I do not, gentle- 
men ! — 
O murderous coxcomb ! what should such a fool 
Do with so good a wife } 

[The Moor runs at Iago. who stabs Emilia, 

and exit. 
Otk. Are there no stones in heaven 

But what serve for the thunder? — Precious vil- 
lain ! 
Gra. The woman falls ! sure, he hath kill'd 

his wife. 
Emz/. Ay, ay ! — Oh, lay me by my mistress' 

side ! 
Gra. He's gone, but his wife 's kill'd. 
Mon. 'T is a notorious villain; Take you this 
weapon 
240 Which I have here recover'd from the Moor: 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 159 

Come, guard the door without ; let him not pass, 
But kill him rather. I '11 after that same villain, 
For 't is a damned slave. 

[Exeunt MoNTANO and Gratiano. 

0th. I am not valiant neither, 

But every puny whipster gets my sword. — 
But why should honor outlive honesty } 
Let it go all. 

Emil. What did thy song bode, lady.? 

Hark ! canst thou hear me ? I will play the swan, 
And die in music [Singing], " Willow, willow, 

willow." — 
Moor, she was chaste ; she loved thee, cruel 

Moor; 
So come my soul to bliss, as I speak true ; 250 

So speaking as I think, I die : — I die ! [Dies. 

0th. I have another weapon in this chamber. 
It is the sword of Spain, the ice-brook's temper. — 
Oh, here it is. — Uncle, I must come forth. 

Gra. [ Without.] If thou attempt it, it will cost 
thee dear; 
Thou hast no weapon, and perforce must sufler. 

0th. Look in upon me, then and speak with 
me, 
Or, naked as I am, I will assault thee. 

Re-enter Gratiano. 

Gra. What is the matter ? 

Oth. Behold ! I have a weapon ; 

A better never did itself sustain 260 

Upon a soldier's thigh : I 've seen the day 
That, with this little arm and this good sword, 
I 've made my way through more impediments 



i6o OTHELLO. [act v. 

Than twenty times your stop. — But O vain 

boast ! 
Who can control his fate? 't is not so now. — 
Be not afraid, though you do see me weapon'd ; 
Here is my journey's end, here is my butt. 
And very sea-mark of my utmost sail. 
Do you go back dismay'd ? 't is a lost fear; 

270 Man but a rush against Othello's breast, 

And he retires. Where should Othello go? — 
Now, how dost thou look now ? O ill-starr'd 

wench ! 
Pale as thy smock ! when we shall meet at compt. 
This look of thine will hurl my soul from heaven. 
And fiends will snatch at it ! — Cold, cold, my girl ! 
Even like thy chastity. — 
O cursed, cursed slave ! — Whip me, ye devils. 
From the possession of this heavenly sight ! 
Blow me about in winds! roast me in sulphur! 

280 Wash me in steep-down gulfs of liquid fire ! — ■ 
O Desdemona ! Desdemona! dead! 
Oh i Oh ! Oh ! 

Enter LODOVICO, MONTANO, Cassio carried m 
a chair, arid Officers, with \ago prisoner. 

Lod. Where is this rash and most unfortunate 

man ? 
0th. That's he that was Othello : — here I am. 
Lod. Where is that viper? bring the villain 

forth. 
0th. I look down towards his feet ; — but that's 
a fable. — 
If that thou be'st a devil, I cannot kill thee. 

[ Wotmds I AGO. 



sen.] OTHELLO. i6i 

Lod. Wrench his sword from him, 

lago. I bleed, sir; but not kill'd. 

0th. I am not sorry, neither ; I 'd have thee 
live ; 
For, in my sense, 't is happiness to die. 290 

Lod. O thou Othello, that wert once so good, 
Fall'n in the practice of a damned slave, 
What shall be said to thee,? 

0th. Why, anything : 

An honorable murderer, if you will ; 
For nought did I in hate, but all in honor. 

Lod. Tliis wretch hath part confess'd his vil- 
lany. 
Did you and he consent in Cassio's death } 

0th. Ay. 

Cas. Dear general, I never gave you cause. 

0th. I do believe it, and I ask your pardon. 300 
Will you, I pray, demand that demi-devil. 
Why he hath thus ensnar'd my soul and body } 

Lago. Demand me nothing : what you know, 
you know : 
From this time forth I never will speak word. 

Lod. What, not to pray ? 

Gra. Torments will ope your lips. 

0th. Well, thou dost best. 

Lod. Sir, you shall understand what hath be- 
fall'n. 
Which, as I think, you know not. Here is a letter. 
Found in the pocket of the slain Roderigo ; 
And here another: the one of them imports 310 
The death of Cassio to be undertook 
Bv Roderigo. 

'0th. Oh, villain ! - 



1 62 OTHELLO. [act v. 

Cas. Most heathenish and most gross ! 

Lod. Now here's another discontented paper, 
Found in his pocket too ; and this, it seems, 
Roderigo meant t' have sent this damned villain ; 
But that, belike, lago in the interim 
Came in and satisfied him. 

0th. O the pernicious caitiff! — 

How came you, Cassio, by that handkerchief 
That was my wife's ? 
320 Cas. I found it in my chamber; 

And he himself confess'd but even now 
That there he dropp'd it for a special purpose 
Which wrought to his desire. 

0th. O fool ! fool ! fool ! 

Cas. There is besides in Roderigo's letter, 
How he upbraids lago, that he made him 
Brave me upon the watch ; whereon it came 
That I was cast : and even but now he spake, 
After long seeming dead, lago hurt him, 
lago set him on. 
330 Lod. You must forsake this room and go with 
us ; 
Your power and your command is taken off, 
And Cassio rules in Cyprus. For this slave, — 
If there be any cunning cruelty 
That can torment him much and hold him long, 
It shall be his. You shall close prisoner rest. 
Till that the nature of your fault be known 
To the Venetian state, — Come, bring away. 

0th. Soft you ! a word or two before you go. 
I 've done the state some service, and they 
know 't ; — 
340 No more of that. — I pray you, in your letters. 



sc. II.] OTHELLO. 163 

When you shall these unlucky deeds relate, 

Speak of me as I am ; nothing extenuate, 

Nor set down aught in malice : then must you 

speak 
Of one that lov'd not wisely but too well ; 
Of one not easily jealous, but, being wrought, 
Perplex'd in the extreme ; of one whose hand. 
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away 
Richer than all his tribe ; of one whose subdued 

eyes, 
Albeit unused to the melting mood, 
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees 350 

Their med'cinable gum. Set you down this ; 
And say besides, that in Aleppo once, 
Where a malignant and a turban'd Turk 
Beat a Venetian and traduc'd the state, 
I took by th' throat the circumcised dog, 
And smote him — thus. {^Stabs Jujuself. 

Lod. O bloody period ! 

Gra. All that 's spoke is marr'd. 

Oth, I kiss'd thee ere I kill'd thee ; — no way 
but this. 
Killing myself, to die upon a kiss. 

{Falls up07i the bed and dies. 
. Cas. This did I fear, but thought he had no 

weapon ; 360 

For he was great of heart. 

Lod. [To Iago.) O Spartan dog. 

More fell than anguish, hunger, or the sea! 
Look on the tragic loading of this bed ; 
This is thy work : — the object poisons sight; 
Let it be hid. — Gratiano, keep the house. 
And seize upon the fortunes of the Moor, 



i64 OTHELLO. [act v. 

For they succeed on you. — To you, lord governor. 
Remains the censure of this hellish villain ; 
The time, the place, the torture ;— Oh, enforce it ! 
370 Myself will straight abroad ; and to the state 
This heavy act with heavy heart relate. 

\^Exeu7it. 



NOTES. 



Act I. 

Scene I. 



4. 'Sblood, for God''s blood, as ''swounds, or zounds, for 
God^s wounds. In 1606 the use of bad language on the stage 
was checked by Act of Parliament. 

10. Off-capped, took off their cap to him. 

11. I am qualified to be at least lieutenant, 

13. Them, lago's supporters. Bombast, cotton padding, 
hence affected language. Circumstance, the opposite of a 
straightforward answer, 

14. The hemistich (half-line), as in line 18, enables the actor 
to make a more effective pause. 

20. The commercial tone of Florence is contrasted with 
warlike Venice. 

21. Cassio has almost decided to ruin himself by marrying 
Bianca, a courtezan. 

23. Battle, battalion. 

24. Bookish theoric, object of knows. The theory of war, 
learnt from reading treatises, opposed to practice. 

25. Toged; the toga is symbolic of peace. Propose, speak. 
27. He was chosen. 

30. Be-le'd, having the wind taken out of the sails. 

31. By a mere book-keeper, who adds up counters; i.e., 
money. 

33. God bless the mark, used to avert the evil omen in 
using strong language. Ancient, corruption of ensign, a 
flag-bearer. 

35, sq. We cannot help it. Promotion goes not, as in for- 
mer times, by seniority, but by influence and partiality. 

39. In any reasonable way. Affin'd, related, so well dis- 
posed to. 

165 



1 66 OTHELLO. [act i. 

41. lago would not serve Othello, but that he sees a chance 
of revenge. 

45. Knave, German Knabe, boy. 

46. Doting on, growing foolish over. 

49. Me. Ethic dative. More common in French. But cf. 
sc. 2, 72; Bafnlet, ii. 2, 601, " Who does me this ?" 

50. Visages. Like Latin znsus, looks. 

60. So, loving and duteous. 

61, sg. For lago to give the key-note to his real character is 
a touch of genius. 

66. Thick-lips. The Moors were not negroes. Owe, own. 

68. The second him refers to Othello. 

69. Proclaim him as an offender against the public peace. 

71. Allusion to one of the plagues of Egypt. 

72. Metaphor from the artist's mixmg colors. 

73. As, for that. 

91. Worser, the double comparative — common in Shake- 
speare. Three double superlatives — most unkindest, jnosf 
worst, and most boldest — are also found. 

96 Upon, for the purpose of. 

99. I am annoyed at your joke, and have power to make yoti 
regret it. 

102. Grange, a farm-house. 

III. Odd-even and dull watch. Odd-even is interpreted 
to mean the interval between midnight and one a.m. The hy- 
phen not in earliest copies. 

113. But, than or except. 

115. Allowance, approval. 

116. Saucy, insolent, outrageous. "Full of sauce, pun- 
gent." — Skeat. 

117. I am sure you are wrong in abusing us. 
119. From, away from. 

137. Cast, dismiss. 

141. In which regard, on account of which, 

146. The name of the inn. 

169. I am sure of aid almost everywhere. 

Scene II. 

2. Stuff, the essential point. 

5. Yerk'd, to strike. Derived possibly irovajerk. 

9. I scarcely tolerated him. 

12. The magnifico— z. e., Brabantio— has practically twice aso 
much influence as the Doge. i 

17. Cable, from capere to hold; through Low Latin caplum,'^.' 
a holding-rope. 



sc. III.] NOTES. 167 

19. To know. Act. inf. for passive. 

21. I am of high birth. 

22. Demerits. A negative word, used in both senses. Cf. 
" Opinion shall of his demerits rob Cominius." — Coriolanus, i^ 
I. 276. 

26, 27. I, now free, would not tie myself. 

31. Parts, disposition or talents. 

41. Sequent, one after another. 

43. Consuls, counsellors. 

50. Carack, or carrack, O.F. carraque, a ship of burden. 

52. To who ? In the Elizabethan period there was much 
confusion respecting the case-forms of the interrogative and. 
other pronouns. 

53. Marry, by the Virgin Mary. The pun is probably in- 
tentional, though Shakespeare was dropping the habit. 

60. Your words, as those of an old man, will do more than 
your weapons. 

63. I will refer to anyone the question whether such a con- 
trariety, as a girl who had refused handsome Venetians ac- 
cepting a blackamoor, can have been caused by anything but 
enchantment. 

71. Fear and delight. Possibly nouns, but more probably, 
as Abbott, "■ Thou a thing (fit) to fear, not to delight." 

73. The use of philtres, or drugs, to produce feelings of 
love, was common among the ancients. 

75. Readings vary between weaken and waken. The latter 
is the easier to understand, and therefore less likely to have 
been altered. 

76. Probable, in its more strict sense, admitting proof. Pal- 
pable, that can be felt. 

82. Of my inclining, who lean towards me. 

83. Cue, derived from French queue^ a tail. A stage word, 
the end of one speech waited for by the actor who has 10 
carry on the dialogue without interrupting. 

91. The officer addresses Brabantio. 

q8. If we tolerate such an offence against our dignity, w< 
shall soon lose it. 



Scene III. 

I. Composition, agreement. 
5. Jump, tally. 
. Aim reports, conjecture bandies about reports. 
o. Secure, Der. se (as in se-paro) cura, without care. I da 
no lay aside anxiety on account of the discrepancy in the ac- 
counts. 



i68 OTHELLO, [act i. 

12. In fearful sense, in feeling fearful, 
15. The Turks tried to recover Cyprus (which they had lost 
a century before) in 1570. 

17. By, about. 

18. If we put the statement to the test of common sense, we 
cannot believe it. Pageant, a mock, or show, Der. Latin 
pagina, page, in later times the scaffold on which mysteries 
were acted. Root, /«^, to fasten. 

22. 3. Not only is it more important but he can bear {ferre) 
the business more easily— win the place, 

24. It is not so well lortitied. 

33. Ottomites, derived from Othman, or Osman, founder of 
the Turkish empire in a.l. 1299. 

52. Good your grace. The possessive adjective is really 
combined with the noun, as in monsieur. 

57. Engluts, French engloutir, to swallow, 

61. Mountebank, a quack doctor, one who mounts a bench 
to puff his wares, 

64. Sans, used for without, for metre's sake, A favorite 
word with Shakespeare. As You Like It, ii, 7, 166, "Sans 
teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything." 

69. Proper, own. 

80. This is the head and front., and the sum of my offence, 

84. Till within the last nine months, 

85. All their chief work has been in the field. 

94. Some such word as uuith understood. 

95. Every emotion blushed at and revealed itself. 

99. A person who could confess. . . is not of sound judg- 
ment. 

loi. The ideas are compressed. An unmaimed judgment 
must look for . . . 

108, Hunter explains thin habits, the thin garb in which 
you invest the matter. 

109, Modern, used contemptuously. Commoplace, trite, 
HI. Indirect, wrong, unfair, 

129. Still, always. Questioned me the story. Omission 
of preposition of. 

131, The hemistich adds to the effect of the enumeration by 
giving the actor time to think over the list, 

139. Portance. (¥x&ryc\\ porter.) My bearing, 

140. Antres, caves. Idle, wild. 

141. Quarries, Der. ^wrt<fr«rm, the place where the blocks 
are squared. 

143. Cannibal, corruption of Caribal, Caribbean, 
145. Raleigh gave an account of such men in his Descriptioi 
of Guiana, 1596, 

154. By parcels, by small portions. 



sc. III.] NOTES. 169 

173. Make the best of a bad business. 

176. If she admits that she met him half-way, then I blame 
him no more. 

199. Like yourself, either briefly, or as your case demands. 
Lay a sentence, pronounce a maxim, which he proceeds to 

do in rhyming verse, in sententious couplets. 

200. Grise, a step. 
io9. Bootless, useless. 
210. So, upon that theory. 

213. Free, cheap. 

214. Who, to get rid of pressing grief, has to draw upon his 
stock of patience. 

217. These maxims cut both ways. 

219. Piercing would not be a remedy for a bruise, so that we 
must take the word as meaning merely reached. 

222. Fortitude, the strength. 

225. Opinion that overawes all plans and their results. 

227. To slubber, obscure, slur over. 

232. I admit that difficulty brings out quickness of action, 
which is natural to me. 

238- Due arrangement as to her home and allowance. Ex- 
hibition in this sense still so used at the Universities. 

245. Prosperous, propitious. 

249. To live. Understand enough. 

250. Downright, uncontrolled. For storm the first Quarto 
has scorne., which Johnson accepted. 

260. By. The idea of instrumentality passes into causality — 
because of. 

265. Proper satisfaction, self-gratification. 
267. Defend, prevent that you should think. 

269. For, because. 

270. Seel, to close the eyes. Originally a term of falconryl 

271. i.e. my eyes. 

272. Disports, amusements. 

273. Skillet, small pot. From Latin scutella, a small dish. 

274. May my reputation be damaged by all attacks, how- 
ever base. 

290. Delighted, here for delightful, as in Cymbeline, v. 4, 
102 — " To make my gift the more delayed, delighted.'''' 

294. Brabantio's unnatural pique belies his daughter's 
chastity. The disobedience in eloping was severely punished, 
but her subsequent story about the handkerchief was not the 
deliberate attempt to conceal the truth, and did not really 
touch the constancy of her heart 

306. Incontinently, immediately. 

307. Roderigo, another dupe of lago's, differs from Othello 
in this, that the latter never suspects honest lago, the former 



I70 OTHELLO. [act ii. 

is constantly suspicious that he is being cheated, and is as 
constantly satisfied, notwithstanding the grossest indications 
that should have put him on his guard. 

313. lago's comparative youth is a touch in the picture. So 
young, yet so utterly unable to believe in the existence of good- 
ness, even in Desdemona, pure as Dian's visage. " All things 
are to him common and unclean." — Gervinus. 

321. Fond, foolish. Virtue, power. 

322, sq. To lago reason alone is the measure of things. He 
is one of those beings whose brains have become sharp with 
the hardening of their hearts. In this passage he poses as the 
sceptic who ignores any higher constraint of the passions than 
that supplied by the reason and the will. 

326. Gender, kind. 

328. Corrigible, corrective. 

334. Sect, cutting. 

340. Stead, help. 

342. Defeat thy favor, conceal thy face. Cf. Julius Ccesar, 
i. 2, 91, " As well as I do know your outward favor." 

347. Answerable sequestration, corresponding estrange- 
ment. 

349. Locusts, (i) A winged insect; (2) the fruit of the carob 
tree. 

350. Coloquintida, colocynth, a bitter yellow gourd. 

354. A more delicate way. By committing mortal sin with 
Desdemona. lago is here ironical. 

The repetition, Put money in thy purse, is equivalent to 
This is your game. But you must be prepared to pay for it. 

395. Proper, fine, pretty. 

396. Plume up, make to triumph. 
400. Dispose for disposition. 



Act II. 

Scene I. 

3. 'Twixt the heaven and the main, on the horizon. 
g. Mortise, a hole in a piece of wood to receive the tenon 
in carpentry. 

12. Chidden, and so, angry. 

13. Shaked, the old infinitive being shak^«, Elizabethan 
writers frequently used the form of ed for the participle. 

15. Molestation, disturbance. 

17,18. Enchaf'd, enshelter'd, embay'd. ^« was a favorite 
prefix with Shakespeare, especially in this play. We shall find 



sc. I.] NOTES. 171 

also i»«cave, ^wwheel, ^^fetter'd, ^wmesh. Perhaps with par- 
ticiples he likes some kind of prefix as a substitute for the old 
prefix. 

22. Their plan is foiled. 

23. Sufferance, damage, loss. 

26. A ship equipped by the inland city of Verona 
41. We may expect fresh arrivals any moment. 
50. Not in danger from being overloaded with fear. 

62. Paragons, a Spanish word formed by two preposi- 
tions— /«?-«, con — outdoes. 

63. Quirks, tricks. 

64. 65. In her natural beauty baffles the clever person who 
would describe her. Ingener, contriver. Hamlet (iii. 4, 206J, 
" The ingener hoist with his own petard." 

67. He has was often pronounced and written has. 

69. Gutter'd, worn into channels. 

70. Who conspire to delay. 

71. From a mere love of beauty. 

72. Mortal, here deadly, fatal. 

76. Who lands here a week sooner than we expected. 
7Q. Tall, a stock epithet for ships. Merchant of Venice^m. 
I, 6 : " The carcases of many a tall ship lie buried." 
82. Riches, may be for richesse, a singular noun. 
97. He explains to lago that it would be hyper-modesty if he 



merely gave her a formal greeting. 



-• 105. When I wish to sleep. 

115. I will not come to yoti for a character or an epitaph. 
123. I beguile my sadness by appearing merry. 

126. I am working at it. 

127. Birdlime, a glutinous substance. Prize, or frieze, 
cloth of Friesland, from which, being rough, it was difficult to 
remove stains without tearing away the nap. 

130, 131. The clever woman finds a means to make use of 
her charms. 

133. Thereto, besides. Black, a brunette. 

143. A plain woman is as dangerous as any other. 

148. Put on the vouch, dare venture to call upon malice it- 
self to vouch for her. S. T. Coleridge remarked that Shakes- 
peare puts all sarcasms upon women into the mouth of villains. 

156. By the despised salmon ''s tail he means Othello, whom 
she had chosen in preference to the wealthy, curled darlings of 
Venice. 

161. His bathos means, she is only fit to have silly children, 
and keep the tally at a beer-house. 

165. Liberal, wanton. Profane, gross. 
^171. Gyve, etc., fetter thee in thy courtesies. 

185. I am as delighted as surprised. 



172 OTHELLO. [act ir. 

ig4. There cannot be much more such happiness in store for 
me. 

203. The pegs on which the strings of the instrument are 
strained, and so loosen the strings and cause discords. 

206. Desir'd, loved. 

208, Out of fashion, more than good breeding allows. 

221. Directly, manifestly, unmistakably. 

223. Lay thy finger thus, on thy lips. 

229. Favor, face. 

230. Sympathy in years. Perhaps here, as in Midsummer 
Nigkfs Dream, 1. i, 137, Shakespeare is thinking of his own 
marriage. 

2^(6. Pregnant, evident, clear. Position, assertion, capable 
of being defended. 

V.40. Salt, wai^ton. 

:4i. Slipper, slippery. 

242. Stamp, make valid and current. 

249. Condition, temper. 

283. Qualification, they will be appeased only by the dis- 
missal of Cassio. 

288. "Without the which, the removal of which. 

296. Apt, natural, 

312. Trash, drift-wood found under trees. Perhaps both 
are hunters' words. 

313. Putting on, instigation. 

314. To have at an advantage. Cf. " Now, infidel, I have 
you on the hip.'''' — Merchant of Venice, iv. i, 334, 

315. Garb, form, manner. 

321. Evil plans are developed as they proceed. 

Scene II. 

2. Importing, relating. 

3. Mere, absolute, complete. 

8, Offices, serving-rooms. 

9. Told, struck. 

Scene III. 

IP 
has upset my weak head. 

49. Dislike and like were usually impersonal as synonymous 
w'xihplease. Cf. "The music likes you not." — Two Gentlemen 
0/ Verona, iv. 2, 56. 

56, Pottle, diminutive olpot. 

58. Are always on guard where their honor is concerned. 

59. Elements. As it were, a pure extract or quintessence. 



SC, III.] NOTES. 173 

66. Rouse, occurs also thrice in Hamlet^ a play of the same 
period, but not elsewhere. It is a Scandinavian word meaning 
a drinking-bout. 

79. Potent in potting, heavy drinkers. 

85. He sweats not, it is no great matter to him. 

86. Almain, German. 

92. The mention of England suggests the second song^ 
which is an old ballad to be found in Percy's Keliquns (pub- 
lished 1765). 

95. Lown, loon. Originally lowm. Perhaps connected 
with a Scotch word loamy, slow. 

104. Cassio is already incoherent. 

118. K British soldier is not considered drunk if he can go 
through his facings. 

132. Odd, occasional, incidental. 

135. He will keep awake twenty-four hours. 

144. Should run such risks by having such a man for his 
second-in-command . 

145. Ingraft, the omission of the ed is common in verbs 
whose terminations already resemble participles ; eg. also 
hoist, disjoint, heat. 

152. Twiggen, covered with straw network. 

155. Mazzard, a contemptuous word for head, or possibly 
jaw. 

170. To turn Turk, to undergo a complete change for the 
worse. In this passage the proverb is especially appropriate, 
the Tuiks having just been prevented by the storm from at- 
tacking them. 

173. I will kill instantly anyone who strikes a blow in his own 
quarrel. 

180. Quarter, peace. Possibly quarter refers to the apart- 
ment assigned to the officers on guard. 

188. You are thus forgot, have thus forgotten yourself. 

190. Some verbs claim exemption from the use of to, on the 
ground of being auxiliary. 

193. Censure was a colorless word meaning opinion, in 
Elizabethan times. 

195. Opinion, reputation. 

199. While I avoid speaking, which is now painful. 

206. Collied, obscured. 

209. In my rebuke, in receiving it. 

215. Manage. Literally to handle, wield. 

218. Affin'd, related. 

220. Do not so press me. 

267. Sense of pain. 

274. He punishes more to appease the islanders than because 
he is angry. 



174 OTHELLO. [act in. 

276. Affright does not suit the comparison. Cassio is the 
dog, the natives are meant by the lion ; he beats the former to 
Appease the latter. 

281. Fustian, another stuff named from the place of manu- 
facture— Fustat, an old name of Cairo. 

338. I despair of, 

344. Probal, a contraction oi probable . 

349. She could win the Moor over to anything. 

350, The cross. 

354. Function, operation of reason. lago, solus, feels the 
sting of conscience, but very readily settles matters with it— 
for the moment. 

355. Parallel, level, or even, with his design. 
358. Suggest, to tempt. 

370. Cry, pack, where the part is a secondary one, 

384. Mass, from the phrase, ^' Ite, missa est^' (" Go, the 

congregation is dismissed '■■), used at the end of the service. 

Hence missal^ a mass-book, and Christ-, Candle-w^j-. 



Act III. 

Scene I. 

24, Quillets, short for quidlibet, anything; you choose. 
43. lago was a Venetian, and C. a Florentine, 
45. Displeasure, the disfavor you are in. 
57. Bestow, stow, place in secrecy. 

Scene III. 

12. His estrangement shall not be more serious than policy 
demands. 

16. Increase from circumstances. 

23. Hawks were tamed by being kept awake, 

24, Shrift, usually confession ; here a confessional. 

64, sq. He has hardly committed any fault which would be 
popularly considered worthy of a personal punishment, except 
that, at these times, we have to sacrifice our best men to con- 
ciliate the enemy. 

70. Mammering, desisting, standing in suspense. Possibly 
ynamnter wsis like stant7ne7\ onomatopoetic, 

76, This is no great suit after all, 

79, Peculiar, private, 

83. An alarming thing to grant. 

113, Purse, to wrinkle up, like a purse drawn together. 

118. And, for, and, because. 



sc. HI.] NOTES. 175 

123. Close delations, secret informations. 
129. On that principle, Cassio is honest. 
140. Leets, manor courts. 
146. Vicious, wrong. 

153. lago's pretended reluctance excites Othello. 
173. Fineless, infinite. 
178. Still, always. See note on i. 3, 129. 
180. Resolved, set free from doubt. 
182. Exsufflicate, swollen, puffed out. 
183- Matching, similar to. 

210. If oak be ihe right reading, the reference is to the grain 
of the wood ; but Staunton plausibly conjectures hawk. 
212. Of, about, concerning. 

215. Jot, Anglicized form of z'oia, the smallest Greek letter. 
234. In the case 1 am putting. 

237. Fall, begin. Cf. "Before you fall to y\3.Y .'''—Hamlet, 
V. 2, 216. 

238. Happily, haply, perchance, 

249. Means, adopted by him to gain his end. 

250. Strain his entertainment, beg for him to be employed . 
253. Consider my fears officious. 

260. Haggard, a wild, untrained hawk. 

261. Jesses, straps by which hawks' legs were tied. 

262. Falconers let fly the hawk against the wmd. If doum 
or into the wind, it seldom returns. 

265. Chamberers, men of fashion or of intrigue. 

274. Prerogativ'd, exempted from the evil. 

275. Forked plague, the horns supposed to grow on the fore- 
head of one whose wife had been unfaithful. The sentence is 
complicated by the insertion of the antecedent then. 

276. Quicken, are born. 

278. Here the better genius speaks. 

287. Napkin, for handkerchief. "Dip their napkins in his 
sacred blood " {Julius Ccesar. iii. 2. 138). 

296. Ta'en out, subsequent allusions (sc. 4, i9o)prove this to 
mean copied. 

319. Be not acknown on 't, do not confess to the knowledge 
of it. 

328. Act, action, operation. 

Poppy, whence opium is made. Mandragora, mandrake. 
The root when " torn out of the earth " (Romeo and Juliet, iv. 
3, 47) was thought to resemble the human figure, and to cause 
madness and death. 

333. Owedst, ownest. 

335. Avaunt, begone. Vi&r. en avant. 

369. Abandon remorse, act without regarding conscience. 



176 OTHELLO. [act iii. 

The word remorse is often synony mous with pity, but no 
here. 

376. Your simplicity of mind is here a defect. 

380. Sith, since. 

387. Dian's visa|^e, the face of the moon. 

402. Prick'd, instigated. 

439. Fraught, load. 

443. One of the Moor's nautical images. The Euxine pours 
into the Mediterranean a steady stream. The current from 
the Atlantic is also perpetual. Yet the volume of water in the 
Mediterranean does not increase — the influx only compensating 
for the evaporation caused by the sun. 

454. Clip, originally to hold tight ; hence (i) to embrace 
closely, and (2) to draw closely together the edges of a pair of 
shears. 



22. The doing it. The frequently precedes a transitive par- 
ticiple. Cf. " In the delaying A^z.\.\\r —Measure for Measure, 



Scene IV. 

2. The doing it. The 

tici. . , „ ., - ■ 

[72. -'The locking up The spirits."— Cymbelhte, i. 5, 41. 
It is still so used. 

26. Crusadoes, a Portuguese coin bearing a cross. But, 
unless. 

38. Argues, proves. 

40. Sequester, seclusion from liberty. The word originally 
meant a trustee, to whom property was devised. 

49. Chuck, chicken. 

51. Rheum, a flowing discharge. Often tears. 

66. Darling, a diminutive, little dear, 

73. Fury, madness. 

83. An. Shakespeare's rt« is nothing but the Scandinavian use 
of the common word and. When the iorce of an grew misty, 
it was reduplicated by the addition of i'/; so that an if=i/-i/. 
Skeat. 

119, sq. Simply to know that would be a satisfaction, and I 
would make the best of it. 

123. Advocation, pleading. 

128. Blank, centre of target. 

143. Puddled, make muddy. 

152. With my soul as judge. Suborn. Especially used of 
providing a perjured witness. 

157. Toy, idle fancy. 

178. Continuate, unbroken by other business. 

194. And thmk it will not add to my benefit, nor is it my de- 
sire, to be seen with a woman. 



ACT IV., sc. I.] NOTES. 177 



Act IV. 
Scene I. 

16. Essence, an existence. 

21. Where there was an invalid, this sight might be thought 
portentous. 

23.- lago would attach no importance to that. Othello says 
that that is unlike his usual wisdom. 

27, sq. The sentence is compressed. Some by importunity 
over-persuade ; others give way before the forward folly of 
the mistress. Each class are ready enough to blab. 

43. Noses, i-^. Othello is imagining the familiarity which he 
supposes to have passed between Cassio and Desdemona. 

54.. Lethargy, heavy sleep. 

69. In a patient list, within the limits of patience. List, 
literally the selvage of cloth ; then a place enclosed by a ring 
or border. 

73. Made your fit an excuse to dismiss him. 

73. Encave yourself, conceal yourself behind something. 

92. Unbookish, ignorant. 

105. Addition, title (of lieutenant). 

98. Dower, or power. Readings vary. 

While lago draws out Cassio, Othello is watching and 
listening. 

III. Shakespeare had been studying for his Roman plays 
about this time. 

120. Have you settled with me? or have you branded me 
with a mark of disgrace ? 

134. Hale, form of hmil. Cf . Acts viii. 3. " Haling men 
and women committed them to prison." 

139. Before me, a euphemism for before God. 

140. Fitchew^, a pole-cat. 
153. Should, used for 7nust. 
178. In the killing. 

199. Patent, permission. 

214. I will dispose of him. 

230. Othello has reached the end of the letter, reading to 
himself. 

234. Atone. Der. atone; to reconcile. 

258. While speaking to Lodovico he pauses to rail at Desde- 
mona. 

265. Lodovico cannot account for the Moor's demeanor. 

271. Censure, originally opinion, good or bad. See note on 



275- P 



275. Probably the second clause of lago's speech is an aside. 



178 OTHELLO. [act. iv. 



Scene II. 

3. She. Shakespeare's inflexion of pronouns is very irreg- 
ular. 

12. Durst to wager. See note on ii. 3, 190, 

13. Other, otherwise. 

30. Mystery, business, trade, profession. 
48. They, the gods in heaven. 

54, 55. Text doubtful here. Proposed changes numerous 
and unsatisfactory. 

62. Knot and gender, to breed. Turn, change. 
99. With who. See note on line 3, supra. 
104. Water, tears. 

108. Have I been behav'd. A relic of the passive is still 
kept up in well-behaved. 

109. Opinion, ill opinion. 

121. Callet, a bad woman, a strumpet. 

128. Beshrew^, curse. 

130. Eternal. Some think this word an inaccuracy here for 
infernal. 

132. Cog, cheat. Cozen, act as a cousin, thence, to sponge 
upon, beguile. 

137. Abus'd, cheated. 

172. Daff, put off. Same word as doff. 

\jS- Conveniency, enjoyment of advantage. 

iQo. Votarist, one vowed to a life of religion, a recluse. 

197. Fobb'd, cozened, cheated. 

Scene III. 

7, sg. An aside. 

12. Incontinent, immediately. 

32. But, preventive. At one side. We still say rt-side {at 
side), but on one side. 

23. All's one, it is of no consequence. 

40, sq. A song much like this is found in Percy's Reliques. 

53. She has forgotten the words. 

59. Emilia avoids giving a direct affirmative. 

69, sq. It is only wrong if it becomes known to the world ; 
now, if one is to gain the world for it, the world is at your 
command, and therefore it is no matter. 

80 Having, property. Cf. "The gentlemaji is of no hav 
ing." — Merry Wives., iii. 2, 73. 

81. We are vexed. 

94. Mend, amend. 



sc. I., II.] NOTESs 179 



Act V. 

Scene I. 

I. Bulk, the projecting portion of a building. 

II. Quat, pimple, pustule. Sense, quick. 
14. Live. Subjunctive, If Roderigo live. 

16. BobbM, cheated. Cf. " You shall not bob us out of our 
melody.'''' — Troilus and Cressida^ iii. i, 75. The verb (intrans.) 
means to knock against, and (trans.) also to thump. 

34. Hies, hastens. 

37. Passage, a going to and fro of people. 

41. Heavy, gloomy, cloudy. Lodovico''s feeling is that it 
may be a plot ; that some one is pretending to be wounded in 
order to induce the unwary to give assistance, and render 
themselves an easy prey to confederates. 

85. Trash, worthless woman. 

106. Gastness, ghastliness. 

129. Fordoes, undoes, ruins. Cf. Hamlet^ v. i, 244: 
" The, corse they follow did with desperate hand 
Fordo its own life.''' 

Scene II. 

11. Pattern, example, masterpiece. 

12. Prometheus stole fire from heaven and gave it to man. 

17. Kissing her again. 

20. I cannot help weeping, but I am pitiless ; my sorrow is 
like the love of the gods, who take those they love. 

28. Grace, pardon, mercy. 

40, My only sin consists in loving you with all my heart and 
against my father's wishes. 

52. Presently = immediately— in Shakespeare''s day. 

65. If I hate you (for your denials) it ceases to be a sacrifice. 

109. Error, movement, wandering. 

134. False as water. The comparison is as old as Jacob's 
farewell to his sons : " Reuben, unstable as water." — Ge7t. 
xlix. 4. The poet Keats chose for his epitaph, " Here lies one 
whose name was writ in water." 

145. Chrysolite, from two Greek words signifying gold and 
stone. 

15 f. His villany has deceived your love. 

158. Othello threatens Emilia. 

171. Must say that you have instigated them to murder. 

177. Apt. See note on ii. i, 296. 



i8o OTHELLO. [act. v. 

183. Charm, restrain, hold. Cf. "To tame a shrew, and 
charm her chattering- tongue." — Taming of the Shrew ^'w. t.^ 
58. 

192. When she gave the handkerchief to lago. 

214. Recognizance, badge, token. 

220. As liberal as the north, as free in my speech as the 
north wind in its blasts. 

226. By fortune, by chance. 

233. Coxcomb, a fool. From the crest in the fool's cap. 

244. Puny is for puisne^ a law term implying inferior in 
rank. Latin post natus, born after. Whipster. Originally 
-ster was the feminine suffix of agency — e.g. drewster, tap- 
pestre (Chaucer, a barmaid — but the distinction was soon lost, 
and maltster., huckster, baxter (baker) were masculine. 

247. I will play the swan. Cf. Tennyson — 

"The wild swan"'s death-hymn took the soul 
Of that waste place with joy 
Hidden in sorrow." 

250. May my soul not reach heaven, if I lie. 

253. Tempered in a brook as cold as ice. The Toledo swords 
^vere noted. The test of excellence was that the points could 
■be driven with a man's full strength against a stone wall with- 
out breaking. 

267. Butt, goal, end. 

273. Smock, a woman's under-garment. From an A.S. 
■word, meaning to creep into ; anything put on over the 
iiead. Compt, reckoning— at the Day of Judgment. 

287. To see if he has cloven feet. 

290. Sense, opinion. 

292. Practice, stratagem, plot. 

328. Hurt him, was his ruin. 

332. For, as for. 

342. Extenuate, palliate, excuse. 

345. Wrought, worked upon by suggestions. 

347. Base, rude, untutored. 

355. Period, end. 

361. Hounds of Sparta are several times alluded to in 
Shakespeare, but what is meant here is probably the Spartan 
savageness of character. 

362. Fell, cruel, destructive. "Othello does not kill Desde- 
mona in jealousy, but in a conviction forced upon him by the 
almost superhuman art of lago, such as any man must and 
-would have entertained who had believed lago's honesty as 
Othello did."— S. T. Coleridge. But how little Othello does 
to investigate lago's charges ! His credulity is incredible. 



A Text-Book on English Literature, 

With copious extracts from the leading authors, English 
and American. With full Instructions as to the 
Method in which these are to be studied. Adapted 
for use in Colleges, High Schools, Academies, etc. By 
Brainerd Kellogg, A.M., Professor of the English 
Language and Literature in the Brooklyn Collegiate 
and Polytechnic Institute, Author of a *' Text-Book on 
Rhetoric," and one of the Authors of Reed & Kellogg's 
** Graded Lessons in English," and "Higher Lessons 
in English." Handsomely printed. 12mo. 478 pp. 
I'tie Book is divided into the following Periods : 

Period I.— Before the Norman Conquest, 670-1066. Period 
n —From the Conquest to Chaucer's death, 1066-1400. Period III 
—From Chaucer's death to Elizabeth, 1400-1558. ttriod IV,- 
Baizabeth's reign, 1558-1603. Period V.— From Elizabeth's deatc 
CO the Restoration, 1603-1660. Period VI.— From the Restoration 
to Swift's death, 1660-1745. Period VII.— From Swift's death to 
the French Revolution, 1745-1789. Period VIII.— From the 
French Revolution, 1789, onwards. 

Each Period is preceded by a Lesson containing a brief re- 
sam6 of the great historical events that hp^^e haa somewhat to 
do in shaping or in coloring the literature or that period. 

Extracts, as many and as ample as the limits of a text-boo|' 
would aUow, have been made from the principal writers of each 
Period. Such are selected as contain the characteristic traits or 
their authors, both in thought and expression, and but few o' 
these extracts have ever seen the light in books of selections- 
none of them have been worn threadbare by use, or have lost 
their freshness by the pupil's familiarity with them in the schoo' 
readers. ^ , ^ ■,. ^ 

It teaches the pupil how the selections are to be studied, 
soiiciting and exacting his judgment at every step of the way 
which leads from the author's diction up through his style and 
thought to the author himself, and in many other ways it places 
the pupil on the best possible footing with the authors whose 
acquaintance it is his business, as well as his pleasure, to make. 

Short estimates of the leading authors, made by the best 
English and American critics, have been inserted, most of them 
contemporary with us. ^. , 

The author has endeavored to make a practical, common- 
sense text-book : one that would so educate the student that 
ne would know and enjoy g ood literature. 

Effingham Maynaed & Co., Publishers, 



A Text-Book on Rhetoric: 

bttpplementing' the development of the Science witli Ex 
naustive Practice in Composition. A Course of Prac- 
tical Lessons adapted for use in High Schools and 
Academies and in the Lower Classes of Colleges. By 
"Brainerd Kellogg, A.M., Professor of the English 
/janguage and Literature in the Brooklyn Collegiate 
and Polytechnic Institute, and one of the authors of 
Reed & Kellogg's "Graded Lessons in English," and 
"Higher Lessons in English." etc. 276 pages, 12mo, 
attractively bound in cloth. 

In preparinc: this work upon Rhetoric, the author's at^ig has been t j 
) write a practical text-book for High Schools, Academies, and the lower 
classes of Colleges, based upon the science rather than an exhaustive 
treatise upon the science itself. 

This vvork has grownup out of the belief that the rhetoric which 
the pupil needs is not that which lodges finally in the memory, but that 
which has worked its way down into his tongue and fingers, enabling 
him to speak and write the better for having studied it. The author be- 
lieves that the aim of the study should be to put the pupil in possession 
of an art, and that this can be done not by forcing the science into him 
through eye and ear, btit by drawing it out of him, in products, through 
tongue and pen. Hence, all explanations of principles are followed by 
exhau°<'*s3 practice in Composition— to this everything is made trib" 
tary. 

W jen, therefore, under the head of Invention, the author is leading 
the pupil up through the construction of sentences and paragraohs, 
through the analyses of subjects and the preparing of frameworks, to 
; the finding of the thought for themes ; when, under the head of Style, 
I he is familiarizing the pupil with its grand, cardinal qualities; and 
when, under tlie head of Productions, he divides discourse into oral 
prose, written prose, and poetry, and these into their subdivisions, giv- 
ing the requisites and functions of each — he is aiming in it all to keep 
sight of the fact that the pupil is to acquire an art, and that to attain 
this he must put into almost endless practice with his pen what he has 
learned from the study of the theory. 

"Kellogg's Ehetoric is evidently the fruit of scholarship and 
large experience. Nothing is sacrificed to show; the book is intended for 
use, and the abundance of examples, together with the explicit and 
well-ordered directions for practice upon them, will constitute one of 
Its chief merits in the eyes of the thorough teacher."— Prof. Albei^t 
S. Cook, «Folins Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md* ' 

Effingham Maynaed & Co., Publishersi 



A Treatise on Physiology and Hygiene. 

For Siducational Institutions and the General Reader. By Joseph C. 
HirrcflisoN, M.D., President of the New York Pathological So- 
ciety; Vice-President of the New York Academy of Medicine: 
Surgeon to the Brooklyn City Hospital ; and late President of the 
Medical Society of the State of New York. Fully Illustrated with 
numerous elegant Engravings. 12mo. 300 pages. 

1. The Plan of the Work is to present the leading facts and prin- 
ciples of human Physiology and Hygiene in language so clear and con- 
cise as to be readily comprehended by pupils in schools and colleges, as 
iwell as by general readers not familiar with the subject. 2. The Shjle 
Ae, terse and concise, yet intelligible and clear ; and all useless teclmical- 
ities have been avoided. 3. The Range of Subjects Treated includes 
ihose on which it is believed all person? should be informed, and that 
are proper in a work of this class. 4. The Sitbject-matler is brought up 
to date, and includes the results of the most valuable of recent re- 
searches. Neither subject — Physiology or Hygiene — has been elabor- 
ated at the expense of the other, but each rather has been accorded its 
due weight, consideration, and space. 5. The Engravings are numer- 
ous, of great artistic merit, and are far superior to those in any other 
work of the kind, among them being two elegant colored plates, one 
showing the Viscera in Position, the other, the Circulation of the 
Blood. 6. The Size of the work will commend itself to teachers. It 
contains about 300 pages, and can therefore be easily completed in one 
or two school terms. 

"This book is one of the very few school-books on these subjects 
which can be unconditionally recommended. It is accurate, free from 

ineediess technicalities, and judicious in the practical advice it gives on 

iHygienic topics. The illustrations are excellent." — BosIoia Jour- 

'»al of Chemistry. 

"Its matter is judiciously selected, lucidly presented, attractively 
treated, and pointedly illustrated by memorable facts; and, as to the 
piates and diagrams, they are not only clear and intelligible to begin- 
ners, but beautiful specimens of engraving. I do not see that any 
better presentation of the subject of physiology could be given within 

ithe same compass." — Prof. Jolin Ordronawx, Professor of 
Physiology in the University of Vermont, and also in 
the National 3Iedical College, Washington, L). C. 

Th€ above work is the most popular work and most widely used text-book 
on these subjects yet published. 



Effingham Maynard & Co., Publishers 



French Course. 

By PBorESSOR Jean Gustave Kesxels. 

A Child's Illustrated First Book in TreTna^ 

168 pages. 12mo, 

An Elementary French Grammar. 340 pages. 12ino. 

An Analytical and Practical French Grammar^, 

534 pages. ISmo. 

' A. Key to the English Exercises in the Analytical 

and Practical French Grammar. 13mo. (For Teachers omy. > 

A Collegiate Course in the French Language t 

comprising a complete Grammar, the whoJe being a com- 
pilation of the Principles of the French Language, arranged 
and prepared for the study of French, in Colleges and Oo-- 
legiate Institutions. 559 pages. 13mo. 

A Key to the English Exercises containeu iir. 

Part Second of a Collegiate Course in the French Language. 
13mo. (For teachers only.) 

An Analytical French Reader ; Math English iCx- 
ercises for Translation and Oral Exercises for Practice in 
Speaking: Notes and Vocabulary. In two parts. Part i.-- 
Fables, Anecdotes and Short Stories. Part II.— Selections 
from the best Modern Writers. 1 vol., 13mo. 360 pages. 



iTrammaire Francaise Moderne, Theoriq.i<e9 

Analytique et Pratique. Grammaire partlculierement des-' 
tinee a I'usage des Ecoles Americaines. Preparee et arranges 
d'apres les meilleurs ouvrages modernes, par Victor Al- 
"VERGNAT, Prof esseur de Langue Francaise. 1 vol., P'lQ pag-es. 
"UJmo, cloth. 

KeeteW French Course, In whole or in, part, are in use in the United' 
es Military Academy, West Point; United States Naval School, 
Annapolis; Yale College, Amherst College, Bowdoin College, and. in 
nearly all the Colleges East, West, and South. In the Boston, Chicago, 
Baltimore High Schools and nearly all the High Schools of tht ^Juntry 
where French is taught. Also in most of the principal Female CoUegee 
I (md Ladi^' Schools of tJie country. 

Effingham Maynaed & Co., Publishers, 



ENGLISH CLASSICS—Continued. 

No. 69 BeQiilncey'8 Joan of Ar«. 
" TO Carlyle's Essay on Burns. ^ 

" 71 Byron's Childe Harold's PUgrimage. 
" 72 Poe's Raven, and other »Poein8. 
" 78-74. Maeaulay's Lord CUve. (Double Number.) 
" 7& Webster's Reply to Hayne. 

" "re-f ? Maeaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. (Double Number.) 
" 7S American Patriotic Selections : [Declaration of Independence, 

WasMngton's Farewell Address, Lincoln's Gettysburg 

gpeecb, etc. 
** 79-80 Scott's Lady of the Lake. (Double Number.) 
" 81-83 Scott's Marmion. (Double Number.) 
" 88-84 Pope's Essay on Man. (Double Number.) 
" 85 Shelley's Skylark, Adonais, and other Poems. 
" 86 Dickens' Cricket on the Hearth. (In preparation.) 
« 8? Spencer's Philosophy of Style. 
*' 88 Lamb's Essays of Elia. (In preparation.) 
" 89 Cowper's Task. (Book n.) See No. 28. 

Other Nutnhers in JPreparation. 

Mailing price, single numbers, 12 cents each; double 
numbers, 24 cents. 



ENGLISH CLASSIC SERIES— Special Numbers. 

A.ttr actively Sound, in Hoards. 

Milton's Paradise Lost. (Book I.) Full Explanatory Notes. 94 pp. Mailing 

price, 30 cents. 
Milton's Paradise Lost. (Books I. and II.) Full Explanatory Notes. 158 pp. 

Mailing price, 40 cents. 
Homer's Iliad. (Books I. and VI.) Metrical Translation by George How- 
land, Superintendent of Schools, Chicago. With Introduction and Notes. 

96 pp. Mailing price, 30 cents. 
Chaucer's The Squieres Tale. Full Explanatory Notes, 80 pp. Mailing 

price, 35 cents. 
Chaucer's The Knightes Tale. Full Explanatory Notes. IM pp. Mailing 

price, 40 cents. 
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The Prologue. Critical and Explanatory 

Notes, and Index to Obsolete and Difficult Words. By E, F. Willoughbt, 

M.D. 112 pp., 16mo. Mailing price, 35 cents. 
Goldsmith's She Stoops to Couftuer. With Biographical Sketch. Copiously 

annotated. 96 pp. Mailing price, 30 cents. 
Douglas's Rhetorical Training. 12 cents. 



cIal 



Historical Classic Readings. 

Wzf^ IfitrOiductions and Explanatory Notes. 

For Classes in 1 History, Reading, and Literature. 



From, SO to 6 
.20 per dozen; 



i pages each. JPrice, 12 cents per copy; 
$9 .00 per hundred; $80 .00 per thousand. 



The following i numbers, uniform in style and size, are 
now ready : 

f America. Washington Irving. 
of Virginia. Capt. John Smith. 
Plymouth Plantation. Gov. William 



1 Discovery c 

2 Settlement 

3 History of 

Bradford. 

4 King- Phili 

England. 



p's War, and "Witchcraft In New 

Gov. Thomas Hutchinson. 

5 Discovery iLnd Exploration of the Mississippi 

Valley, j/ohn Gilmary Shea. 

6 Champlaiyn and His Associates. Francis Park- 

man. 

7 Braddoclk's Defeat. Francis Parkman. 

8 First Ba^f-tles of the Revolution. Edward Ever- 

ett. 

9 Colonial] Pioneers. James Parton. 
10 Heroes t|)f the Revolution. James Parton. 

Hher Numbers in Preparation. 



EFFINGHJAM MAYNARD & CO., New York. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




